Mandatory Palestine[1] (Arabic: فلسطين‎‎ Filasṭīn; Hebrew: פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א"י)‎ Pālēśtīnā (EY), where "EY" indicates "Eretz Yisrael", Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of OttomanSouthern Syria after World War I. British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948, during its existence the territory was known simply as Palestine, but, in later years, a variety of other names and descriptors have been used, including Mandatory or Mandate Palestine, the British Mandate of Palestine and British Palestine.

The divergent tendencies regarding the nature and purpose of the mandate are visible already in the discussions concerning the name for this new entity[citation needed]. According to the Minutes of the Ninth Session of the League of Nations' Permanent Mandate Commission:

Colonel Symes explained that the country was described as "Palestine" by Europeans and as "Falestin" by the Arabs, the Hebrew name for the country was the designation "Land of Israel", and the Government, to meet Jewish wishes, had agreed that the word "Palestine" in Hebrew characters should be followed in all official documents by the initials which stood for that designation. As a set-off to this, certain of the Arab politicians suggested that the country should be called "Southern Syria" in order to emphasise its close relation with another Arab State.[5][non-primary source needed]

During the British Mandate period the area experienced the ascent of two major nationalist movements, one among the Jews and the other among the Arabs, the competing national interests of the Arab and Jewish populations of Palestine against each other and against the governing British authorities matured into the Arab Revolt of 1936–1939 and the Jewish insurgency in Palestine before culminating in the Civil War of 1947–1948. The aftermath of the Civil War and the consequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War led to the establishment of the 1949 cease-fire agreement, with partition of the former Mandatory Palestine between the newborn state of Israel with a Jewish majority, the Arab West Bankannexed by the Jordanian Kingdom and the Arab All-Palestine Government in the Gaza Strip under the protectorate of Egypt.

History of Palestine under the British Mandate

Following its occupation by British troops in 1917–1918, Palestine was governed by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. In July 1920, the military administration was replaced by a civilian administration headed by a High Commissioner,[6] the first High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, a Zionist recent cabinet minister, arrived in Palestine on 20 June 1920, to take up his appointment from 1 July.

One of the first actions of the newly installed civil administration in 1921 had been to grant Pinhas Rutenberg—a Jewish entrepreneur—concessions for the production and distribution of wired electricity. Rutenberg soon established an electric company whose shareholders were Zionist organizations, investors, and philanthropists. Palestinian-Arabs saw it as proof that the British intended to favor Zionism, the British administration claimed that electrification would enhance the economic development of the country as a whole, while at the same time securing their commitment to facilitate a Jewish National Home through economic—rather than political—means.[12]

Samuel tried to establish self-governing institutions in Palestine, as required by the mandate, but was frustrated by the refusal of the Arab leadership to co-operate with any institution which included Jewish participation.[13] When Grand Mufti of JerusalemKamil al-Husayni died in March 1921, High Commissioner Samuel appointed his half-brother Mohammad Amin al-Husseini to the position. Amin al-Husseini, a member of the al-Husayni clan of Jerusalem, was an Arab nationalist and Muslim leader, as Grand Mufti, as well as the other influential positions that he held during this period, al-Husseini played a key role in violent opposition to Zionism. In 1922, al-Husseini was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council which had been created by Samuel in December 1921,[14][15] the Council controlled the Waqf funds, worth annually tens of thousands of pounds[16] and the orphan funds, worth annually about £50,000, as compared to the £600,000 in the Jewish Agency's annual budget.[17] In addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine, among other functions, these courts were entrusted with the power to appoint teachers and preachers.

The 1922 Palestine Order in Council[18] established a Legislative Council, which was to consist of 23 members: 12 elected, 10 appointed, and the High Commissioner.[19] Of the 12 elected members, eight were to be Muslim Arabs, two Christian Arabs and two Jews.[20] Arabs protested against the distribution of the seats, arguing that as they constituted 88% of the population, having only 43% of the seats was unfair.[20]Elections were held in February and March 1923, but due to an Arab boycott, the results were annulled and a 12-member Advisory Council was established.[19]

In October 1923, Britain provided the League of Nations with a report on the administration of Palestine for the period 1920–1922, which covered the period before the mandate.[21]

1930s: Arab armed insurgency

In 1930, Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam arrived in Palestine from Syria and organised and established the Black Hand, an anti-Zionist and anti-British militant organisation. He recruited and arranged military training for peasants and by 1935 he had enlisted between 200 and 800 men, the cells were equipped with bombs and firearms, which they used to kill Zionist settlers in the area, as well as engaging in a campaign of vandalism of the settlers-planted trees and British constructed rail-lines.[22] In November 1935, two of his men engaged in a firefight with a Palestine police patrol hunting fruit thieves and a policeman was killed. Following the incident, British police launched a manhunt and surrounded al-Qassam in a cave near Ya'bad; in the ensuing battle, al-Qassam was killed.[22]

The Arab revolt

Arab revolt against the British

A 1930 protest in Jerusalem against the British Mandate by Arab women. The sign reads "No dialogue, no negotiations until termination [of the Mandate]".

The death of al-Qassam on 20 November 1935 generated widespread outrage in the Arab community. Huge crowds accompanied Qassam's body to his grave in Haifa. A few months later, in April 1936, the Arab national general strike broke out, the strike lasted until October 1936, instigated by the Arab Higher Committee, headed by Amin al-Husseini. During the summer of that year, thousands of Jewish-farmed acres and orchards were destroyed, Jewish civilians were attacked and killed, and some Jewish communities, such as those in Beisan and Acre, fled to safer areas. (Gilbert 1998, p. 80) The violence abated for about a year while the British sent the Peel Commission to investigate. (Khalidi 2006, pp. 87–90)

During the first stages of the Arab Revolt, due to rivalry between the clans of al-Husseini and Nashashibi among the Palestinian Arabs, Raghib Nashashibi was forced to flee to Egypt after several assassination attempts ordered by Amin al-Husseini.[23]

Following the Arab rejection of the Peel Commission recommendation, the revolt resumed in autumn of 1937, over the next 18 months, the British lost control of Nablus and Hebron. British forces, supported by 6,000 armed Jewish auxiliary police,[24] suppressed the widespread riots with overwhelming force, the British officer Charles Orde Wingate (who supported a Zionist revival for religious reasons[25]) organised Special Night Squads composed of British soldiers and Jewish volunteers such as Yigal Alon, which “scored significant successes against the Arab rebels in the lower Galilee and in the Jezreel valley”(Black 1991, p. 14) by conducting raids on Arab villages. (Shapira 1992, pp. 247, 249, 350) The Jewish militia Irgun used violence also against Arab civilians as "retaliatory acts",[26]attacking marketplaces and buses.

By the time the revolt concluded in March 1939, more than 5,000 Arabs, 400 Jews, and 200 British had been killed and at least 15,000 Arabs were wounded,[27] the Revolt resulted in the deaths of 5,000 Palestinian Arabs and the wounding of 10,000. In total, 10% of the adult Arab male population was killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled. (Khalidi 2001, p. 26) From 1936 to 1945, while establishing collaborative security arrangements with the Jewish Agency, the British confiscated 13,200 firearms from Arabs and 521 weapons from Jews.[28]

The attacks on the Jewish population by Arabs had three lasting effects: First, they led to the formation and development of Jewish underground militias, primarily the Haganah, which were to prove decisive in 1948. Secondly, it became clear that the two communities could not be reconciled, and the idea of partition was born. Thirdly, the British responded to Arab opposition with the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish land purchase and immigration. However, with the advent of World War II, even this reduced immigration quota was not reached, the White Paper policy also radicalised segments of the Jewish population, who after the war would no longer cooperate with the British.

The revolt had a negative effect on Palestinian Arab leadership, social cohesion, and military capabilities and contributed to the outcome of the 1948 War because "when the Palestinians faced their most fateful challenge in 1947–49, they were still suffering from the British repression of 1936–39, and were in effect without a unified leadership. Indeed, it might be argued that they were virtually without any leadership at all".[29]

Partition proposals

Jewish demonstration against White Paper in Jerusalem in 1939

In 1937, the Peel Commission proposed a partition between a small Jewish state, whose Arab population would have to be transferred, and an Arab state to be attached to Jordan, the proposal was rejected outright by the Arabs. The two main Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, had convinced the Zionist Congress to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.[30][31][32][33][34] In a letter to his son in October 1937, Ben-Gurion explained that partition would be a first step to "possession of the land as a whole".[35][36][37] The same sentiment was recorded by Ben-Gurion on other occasions, such as at a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive in June 1938,[38] as well as by Chaim Weizmann.[37][39]

Following the London Conference (1939) the British Government published a White Paper which proposed a limit to Jewish immigration from Europe, restrictions on Jewish land purchases, and a program for creating an independent state to replace the Mandate within ten years. This was seen by the Yishuv as betrayal of the mandatory terms, especially in light of the increasing persecution of Jews in Europe; in response, Zionists organised Aliyah Bet, a program of illegal immigration into Palestine. Lehi, a small group of extremist Zionists, staged armed attacks on British authorities in Palestine. However, the Jewish Agency, which represented the mainstream Zionist leadership, still hoped to persuade Britain to allow resumed Jewish immigration, and cooperated with Britain in World War II.

In 1942, there was a period of great concern for the Yishuv, when the forces of German General Erwin Rommel advanced east across North Africa towards the Suez Canal and there was fear that they would conquer Palestine. This period was referred to as the "200 days of dread", this event was the direct cause for the founding, with British support, of the Palmach[41] – a highly trained regular unit belonging to Haganah (a paramilitary group which was mostly made up of reserve troops).

As in most of the Arab world, there was no unanimity amongst the Palestinian Arabs as to their position regarding the belligerents in World War II. A number of leaders and public figures saw an Axis victory as the likely outcome and a way of securing Palestine back from the Zionists and the British. Even though Arabs were not highly regarded by Nazi racial theory, the Nazis encouraged Arab support as a counter to British hegemony.[42] SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler was keen to exploit this, going so far as to enlist the aid of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, sending him the following telegram on 2 November 1943:

To the Grand Mufti: The National Socialist movement of Greater Germany has, since its inception, inscribed upon its flag the fight against the world Jewry, it has therefore followed with particular sympathy the struggle of freedom-loving Arabs, especially in Palestine, against Jewish interlopers. In the recognition of this enemy and of the common struggle against it lies the firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between the National Socialist Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims of the whole world; in this spirit I am sending you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour declaration my hearty greetings and wishes for the successful pursuit of your struggle until the final victory – Reichsfuehrer S.S. Heinrich Himmler

Volunteers marching on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv in favor of enlistment into the British army, 13 July 1940

Mobilization

On 3 July 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade, with hand-picked Jewish and also non-Jewish senior officers, on 20 September 1944, an official communiqué by the War Office announced the formation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army. The Jewish brigade then was stationed in Tarvisio, near the border triangle of Italy, Yugoslavia, and Austria, where it played a key role in the Berihah's efforts to help Jews escape Europe for Palestine, a role many of its members would continue after the brigade was disbanded. Among its projects was the education and care of the Selvino children. Later, veterans of the Jewish Brigade became key participants of the new State of Israel's Israel Defense Forces.

Besides Jews and Arabs from Palestine, in total by mid-1944 the British had assembled a multiethnic force consisting of volunteer European Jewish refugees (from German-occupied countries), Yemenite Jews and Abyssinian Jews.[43]

The Holocaust and immigration quotas

In 1939, as a consequence of the White Paper of 1939, the British reduced the number of immigrants allowed into Palestine. World War II and the Holocaust started shortly thereafter and once the 15,000 annual quota was exceeded, Jews fleeing Nazi persecution were interned in detention camps or deported to places such as Mauritius.[44]

Starting in 1939, a clandestine immigration effort called Aliya Bet was spearheaded by an organisation called Mossad LeAliyah Bet. Tens of thousands of European Jews escaped the Nazis in boats and small ships headed for Palestine, the Royal Navy intercepted many of the vessels; others were unseaworthy and were wrecked; a Haganah bomb sunk the SS Patria, killing 267 people; two more were sunk by Soviet submarines. The motor schoonerStruma was torpedoed and sunk in the Black Sea by a Soviet submarine in February 1942 with the loss of nearly 800 lives.[45] The last refugee boats to try to reach Palestine during the war were the Bulbul, Mefküre and Morina in August 1944. A Soviet submarine sank the motor schooner Mefküre by torpedo and shellfire and machine-gunned survivors in the water,[46] killing between 300 and 400 refugees.[47] Illegal immigration resumed after World War II.

After the war 250,000 Jewish refugees were stranded in displaced persons (DP) camps in Europe, despite the pressure of world opinion, in particular the repeated requests of US President Harry S. Truman and the recommendations of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry that 100,000 Jews be immediately granted entry to Palestine, the British maintained the ban on immigration.

After World War II: Insurgency and the Partition Plan

The three main Jewish underground forces later united to form the Jewish Resistance Movement and carry out several attacks and bombings against the British administration; in 1946, the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the British administration, killing 92 people. Following the bombing, the British Government began interning illegal Jewish immigrants in Cyprus. In 1948 the Lehi assassinated the UN mediator Count Bernadotte in Jerusalem. Yitzak Shamir, future prime minister of Israel was one of the conspirators.

The negative publicity resulting from the situation in Palestine caused the Mandate to become widely unpopular in Britain, and caused the United States Congress to delay granting the British vital loans for reconstruction, the British Labour party had promised before its election to allow mass Jewish migration into Palestine but reneged on this promise once in office. Anti-British Jewish militancy increased and the situation required the presence of over 100,000 British troops in the country. Following the Acre Prison Break and the retaliatory hanging of British Sergeants by the Irgun, the British announced their desire to terminate the mandate and withdraw by no later than the beginning of August 1948.[49]

The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry in 1946 was a joint attempt by Britain and the United States to agree on a policy regarding the admission of Jews to Palestine. In April, the Committee reported that its members had arrived at a unanimous decision, the Committee approved the American recommendation of the immediate acceptance of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine. It also recommended that there be no Arab, and no Jewish State, the Committee stated that "in order to dispose, once and for all, of the exclusive claims of Jews and Arabs to Palestine, we regard it as essential that a clear statement of principle should be made that Jew shall not dominate Arab and Arab shall not dominate Jew in Palestine." U.S. President Harry S Truman angered the British Government by issuing a statement supporting the 100,000 refugees but refusing to acknowledge the rest of the committee's findings. Britain had asked for U.S assistance in implementing the recommendations, the U.S. War Department had said earlier that to assist Britain in maintaining order against an Arab revolt, an open-ended U.S. commitment of 300,000 troops would be necessary. The immediate admission of 100,000 new Jewish immigrants would almost certainly have provoked an Arab uprising.[50]

These events were the decisive factors that forced Britain to announce their desire to terminate the Palestine Mandate and place the Question of Palestine before the United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations, the UN created UNSCOP (the UN Special Committee on Palestine) on 15 May 1947, with representatives from 11 countries. UNSCOP conducted hearings and made a general survey of the situation in Palestine, and issued its report on 31 August. Seven members (Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, and Uruguay) recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. Three members (India, Iran, and Yugoslavia) supported the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. Australia abstained.

On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly, voting 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union as Resolution 181 (II).,[51] while making some adjustments to the boundaries between the two states proposed by it. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal, the partition plan required that the proposed states grant full civil rights to all people within their borders, regardless of race, religion or gender. It is important to note that the UN General Assembly is only granted the power to make recommendations, therefore, UNGAR 181 was not legally binding.[52] Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union supported the resolution. Haiti, Liberia, and the Philippines changed their votes at the last moment after concerted pressure from the U.S. and from Zionist organisations.[53][54][55] The five members of the Arab League, who were voting members at the time, voted against the Plan.

The Jewish Agency, which was the Jewish state-in-formation, accepted the plan, and nearly all the Jews in Palestine rejoiced at the news.

The partition plan was rejected out of hand by Palestinian Arab leadership and by most of the Arab population.[qt 1][qt 2] Meeting in Cairo on November and December 1947, the Arab League then adopted a series of resolutions endorsing a military solution to the conflict.

Britain announced that it would accept the partition plan, but refused to enforce it, arguing it was not accepted by the Arabs. Britain also refused to share the administration of Palestine with the UN Palestine Commission during the transitional period; in September 1947, the British government announced that the Mandate for Palestine would end at midnight on 14 May 1948.[56][57][58]

Some Jewish organisations also opposed the proposal. Irgun leader Menachem Begin announced, "The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized, the signature by institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever."[59] These views were publicly rejected by the majority of the nascent Jewish state.[citation needed]

Termination of the Mandate

British leaving Haifa in 1948

When the UK announced the independence of Transjordan in 1946, the final Assembly of the League of Nations and the General Assembly both adopted resolutions welcoming the news,[60] the Jewish Agency objected, claiming that Transjordan was an integral part of Palestine, and that according to Article 80 of the UN Charter, the Jewish people had a secured interest in its territory.[61]

During the General Assembly deliberations on Palestine, there were suggestions that it would be desirable to incorporate part of Transjordan's territory into the proposed Jewish state. A few days before the adoption of Resolution 181 (II) on 29 November 1947, U.S. Secretary of State Marshall noted frequent references had been made by the Ad Hoc Committee regarding the desirability of the Jewish State having both the Negev and an "outlet to the Red Sea and the Port of Aqaba."[62] According to John Snetsinger, Chaim Weizmann visited President Truman on 19 November 1947 and said it was imperative that the Negev and Port of Aqaba be under Jewish control and that they be included in the Jewish state.[63] Truman telephoned the US delegation to the UN and told them he supported Weizmann's position.[64] However, the Trans-Jordan memorandum excluded territories of the Emirate of Transjordan from any Jewish settlement.[65]

Immediately after the UN resolution, the 1947-1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine broke out between the Arab and Jewish communities, and British authority began to break down. On December 16, 1947, the Palestine Police Force withdrew from the Tel Aviv area, home to more than half the Jewish population, and turned over responsibility for the maintenance of law and order to Jewish police,[66] as the civil war raged on, British military forces gradually withdrew from Palestine, although they occasionally intervened in favor of either side. As they withdrew, they handed over control to local authorities, and locally raised police forces were charged with maintaining law and order, the areas they withdrew from often quickly became war zones. The British maintained strong presences in Jerusalem and Haifa, even as Jerusalem came under siege by Arab forces and became the scene of fierce fighting, though the British occasionally intervened in the fighting, largely to secure their evacuation routes, including by proclaiming martial law and enforcing truces. The Palestine Police Force was largely inoperative, and government services such as social welfare, control of water supplies, and postal services were withdrawn; in April 1948, the British withdrew from most of Haifa, but retained an enclave in the port area to be used in the evacuation of British forces, and temporarily retained RAF Ramat David airbase to cover their retreat, leaving behind a volunteer police force to maintain order. The city was quickly captured by the Haganah in the Battle of Haifa. Following the victory, British forces in Jerusalem announced that they had no intention of assuming control of any local administrations, but would not permit any actions that would hamper the safe and orderly withdrawal of British forces from Palestine, and would set up military courts to try persons who interfered.[67][68][69] Although by this time British authority in most of Palestine had broken down, with most of the country in control of the Jews and Arabs, the British air and sea blockade of Palestine remained firmly in place.

The British had notified the U.N. of their intent to terminate the mandate not later than 1 August 1948.[70][71] However, early in 1948, the United Kingdom announced its firm intention to end its mandate in Palestine on 14 May; in response, President Harry S Truman made a statement on 25 March proposing UN trusteeship rather than partition, stating that "unfortunately, it has become clear that the partition plan cannot be carried out at this time by peaceful means... unless emergency action is taken, there will be no public authority in Palestine on that date capable of preserving law and order. Violence and bloodshed will descend upon the Holy Land. Large-scale fighting among the people of that country will be the inevitable result."[72]

Hoisting of the Yishuv flag in Tel Aviv, 1 January 1948

By 14 May 1948, the only British forces remaining in Palestine were in the Haifa area and in Jerusalem, on that same day, the British garrison in Jerusalem withdrew, and High Commissioner Alan Cunningham left the city for Haifa, where he was to leave the country by sea. The Jewish Leadership, led by future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel,[73] on the afternoon of 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708 in the Hebrew calendar), to come into force at midnight of that day.[74][75][76] On the same day, the Provisional Government of Israel asked the US Government for recognition, on the frontiers specified in the UN Plan for Partition,[77] the United States immediately replied, recognizing "the provisional government as the de facto authority."[78]

At the same time that the state of Israel was being declared the Haganah took over formerly British-controlled areas in Jerusalem, as the mandate era came to an end, radical Jewish forces, from whose actions the Haganah distanced themselves, began to clear Palestinian Arab communities in the area which would become Israel.[79]

On 15 May 1948, the Palestine Mandate ended and the State of Israel came into being, the Palestine Government formally ceased to exist, the status of British forces still in the process of withdrawal from Haifa changed to occupiers of foreign territory, the Palestine Police Force formally stood down and was disbanded, with the remaining personnel evacuated alongside British military forces, the British blockade of Palestine was lifted, and all Mandatory Palestine passports ceased to give British protection.[68][80]

Politics

Name

"Palestine" is shown in English, Arabic (فلسطين) and Hebrew; the latter includes the acronym א״י for Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel).

The name given to the Mandate's territory was "Palestine", in accordance with European traditions.[citation needed] The term Palestine was coined in the Western culture from the name of Palaestina province of the Roman (Syria-Palaestina) and later Byzantine Empire (Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Secunda).[citation needed] The Mandate charter stipulated that Mandatory Palestine would have three official languages, namely English, Arabic and Hebrew.

In 1926, the British authorities formally decided to use the traditional Arabic and Hebrew equivalents to the English name, i.e. filasţīn (فلسطين) and pālēśtīnā (פּלשׂתינה) respectively. The Jewish leadership proposed that the proper Hebrew name should be ʾĒrēts Yiśrāʾel (ארץ ישׂראל=Land of Israel), the final compromise was to add the initials of the Hebrew proposed name, Alef-Yud, within parenthesis (א״י), whenever the Mandate's name was mentioned in Hebrew in official documents. The Arab leadership saw this compromise as a violation of the mandate terms, some Arab politicians suggested that there should be a similar Arabic concession, such as "Southern Syria" (سوريا الجنوبية). The British authorities rejected this proposal.[83]

Arab community

The resolution of the San Remo Conference contained a safeguarding clause for the existing rights of the non-Jewish communities, the conference accepted the terms of the Mandate with reference to Palestine, on the understanding that there was inserted in the memorandum a legal undertaking by the Mandatory Power that it would not involve the surrender of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine.[84] The draft mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine, and all of the post-war peace treaties contained clauses for the protection of religious groups and minorities, the mandates invoked the compulsory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice in the event of any disputes.[85]

Article 62 (LXII) of the Treaty of Berlin, 13 July 1878[86] dealt with religious freedom and civil and political rights in all parts of the Ottoman Empire,[87] the guarantees have frequently been referred to as "religious rights" or "minority rights". However, the guarantees included a prohibition against discrimination in civil and political matters. Difference of religion could not be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, admission to public employments, functions, and honours, or the exercise of the various professions and industries, "in any locality whatsoever."

A legal analysis performed by the International Court of Justice noted that the Covenant of the League of Nations had provisionally recognised the communities of Palestine as independent nations. The mandate simply marked a transitory period, with the aim and object of leading the mandated territory to become an independent self-governing State.[88] Judge Higgins explained that the Palestinian people are entitled to their territory, to exercise self-determination, and to have their own State."[89] The Court said that specific guarantees regarding freedom of movement and access to the Holy Sites contained in the Treaty of Berlin (1878) had been preserved under the terms of the Palestine Mandate and a chapter of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.[90]

According to historian Rashid Khalidi, the mandate ignored the political rights of the Arabs,[91] the Arab leadership repeatedly pressed the British to grant them national and political rights, such as representative government, over Jewish national and political rights in the remaining 23% of the Mandate of Palestine which the British had set aside for a Jewish homeland. The Arabs reminded the British of President Wilson's Fourteen Points and British promises during the First World War, the British however made acceptance of the terms of the mandate a precondition for any change in the constitutional position of the Arabs. A legislative council was proposed in The Palestine Order in Council, of 1922 which implemented the terms of the mandate. It stated that: "No Ordinance shall be passed which shall be in any way repugnant to or inconsistent with the provisions of the Mandate." For the Arabs, this was unacceptable, as they felt that this would be "self murder".[92] As a result, the Arabs boycotted the elections to the Council held in 1923, which were subsequently annulled,[93] during the whole interwar period, the British, appealing to the terms of the mandate, which they had designed themselves, rejected the principle of majority rule or any other measure that would give an Arab majority control over the government of Palestine.[94]

The terms of the mandate required the establishment of self-governing institutions in both Palestine and Transjordan; in 1947, Foreign Secretary Bevin admitted that during the previous twenty-five years the British had done their best to further the legitimate aspirations of the Jewish communities without prejudicing the interests of the Arabs, but had failed to "secure the development of self-governing institutions" in accordance with the terms of the Mandate.[95]

Palestinian Arab leadership and national aspirations

Under the British Mandate, the office of "Mufti of Jerusalem", traditionally limited in authority and geographical scope, was refashioned into that of "Grand Mufti of Palestine". Furthermore, a Supreme Muslim Council (SMC) was established and given various duties, such as the administration of religious endowments and the appointment of religious judges and local muftis; in Ottoman times, these duties had been fulfilled by the bureaucracy in Istanbul.(Khalidi 2006, p. 63) In dealings with the Palestinian Arabs, the British negotiated with the elite rather than the middle or lower classes.(Khalidi 2006, p. 52) They chose Hajj Amin al-Husseini to become Grand Mufti, although he was young and had received the fewest votes from Jerusalem's Islamic leaders.(Khalidi 2006, pp. 56–57) One of the mufti's rivals, Raghib Bey al-Nashashibi, had already been appointed mayor of Jerusalem in 1920, replacing Musa Kazim, whom the British removed after the Nabi Musa riots of 1920,(Khalidi 2006, pp. 63, 69)(Segev 2000, pp. 127–144) during which he exhorted the crowd to give their blood for Palestine.(Morris 2001, p. 112) During the entire Mandate period, but especially during the latter half, the rivalry between the mufti and al-Nashashibi dominated Palestinian politics. Khalidi ascribes the failure of the Palestinian leaders to enroll mass support, because of their experiences during the Ottoman Empire period, as they were then part of the ruling elite and accustomed to their commands being obeyed, the idea of mobilising the masses was thoroughly alien to them.(Khalidi 2006, p. 81)

There had already been rioting and attacks on and massacres of Jews in 1921 and 1929, during the 1930s, Palestinian Arab popular discontent with Jewish immigration grew. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, several factions of Palestinian society, especially from the younger generation, became impatient with the internecine divisions and ineffectiveness of the Palestinian elite and engaged in grass-roots anti-British and anti-Zionist activism, organised by groups such as the Young Men's Muslim Association. There was also support for the radical nationalist Independence Party (Hizb al-Istiqlal), which called for a boycott of the British in the manner of the Indian Congress Party, some took to the hills to fight the British and the Jews. Most of these initiatives were contained and defeated by notables in the pay of the Mandatory Administration, particularly the mufti and his cousin Jamal al-Husseini. A six-month general strike in 1936 marked the start of the great Arab Revolt.(Khalidi 2006, pp. 87–90)

Jewish Yishuv

The conquest of the Ottoman Syria by the British forces in 1917, found a mixed community in the region, with Palestine, the southern part of the Ottoman Syria, containing a mixed population of Muslims, Christians, Jews and Druze; in this period, the Jewish community (Yishuv) in Palestine was composed of traditional Jewish communities in cities (the Old Yishuv), which had existed for centuries,[96] and the newly established agricultural Zionist communities (the New Yishuv), established since the 1870s. With the establishment of the Mandate, the Jewish community in Palestine formed the Zionist Commission to represent its interests.

In 1929, the Jewish Agency for Palestine took over from the Zionist Commission its representative functions and administration of the Jewish community, during the Mandate period, the Jewish Agency was a quasi-governmental organisation that served the administrative needs of the Jewish community. Its leadership was elected by Jews from all over the world by proportional representation,[97] the Jewish Agency was charged with facilitating Jewish immigration to Palestine, land purchase and planning the general policies of the Zionist leadership. It ran schools and hospitals, and formed the Haganah, the British authorities offered to create a similar Arab Agency but this offer was rejected by Arab leaders.[98]

In response to numerous Arab attacks on Jewish communities, the Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary organisation, was formed on 15 June 1920 to defend Jewish residents. Tensions led to widespread violent disturbances on several occasions, notably in 1921 (see Jaffa riots), 1929 (primarily violent attacks by Arabs on Jews—see 1929 Hebron massacre) and 1936–1939. Beginning in 1936, Jewish groups such as Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi (Stern Gang) conducted campaigns of violence against British military and Arab targets.

Jewish immigration

Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine from 1920 to 1945

During the Mandate, the Yishuv or Jewish community in Palestine, grew from one-sixth to almost one-third of the population. According to official records, 367,845 Jews and 33,304 non-Jews immigrated legally between 1920 and 1945,[99] it was estimated that another 50–60,000 Jews and a marginal number of Arabs, the latter mostly on a seasonal basis, immigrated illegally during this period.[100] Immigration accounted for most of the increase of Jewish population, while the non-Jewish population increase was largely natural.[101] Of the Jewish immigrants, in 1939 most had come from Germany and Czechoslovakia, but in 1940–1944 most came from Romania and Poland, with an additional 3,530 immigrants arriving from Yemen during the same period.[102]

Initially, Jewish immigration to Palestine met little opposition from the Palestinian Arabs. However, as anti-Semitism grew in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigration (mostly from Europe) to Palestine began to increase markedly. Combined with the growth of Arab nationalism in the region and increasing anti-Jewish sentiments the growth of Jewish population created much Arab resentment, the British government placed limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine. These quotas were controversial, particularly in the latter years of British rule, and both Arabs and Jews disliked the policy, each for their own reasons.

Jewish immigrants were to be afforded Palestinian citizenship:

Article 7, the Administration of Palestine shall be responsible for enacting a nationality law. There shall be included in this law provisions framed so as to facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who take up their permanent residence in Palestine.[103]

Jewish national home

In 1919, the General Secretary (and future President) of the Zionist Organization, Nahum Sokolow, published History of Zionism (1600–1918), he also represented the Zionist Organization at the Paris Peace Conference.

“

The object of Zionism is to establish for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law." ... It has been said and is still being obstinately repeated by anti-Zionists again and again, that Zionism aims at the creation of an independent "Jewish State" But this is fallacious, the "Jewish State" was never part of the Zionist programme. The Jewish State was the title of Herzl's first pamphlet, which had the supreme merit of forcing people to think, this pamphlet was followed by the first Zionist Congress, which accepted the Basle programme—the only programme in existence.

One of the objectives of British administration was to give effect to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which was also set out in the preamble of the mandate, as follows:

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.[105]

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine said the Jewish National Home, which derived from the formulation of Zionist aspirations in the 1897 Basle program has provoked many discussions concerning its meaning, scope and legal character, especially since it had no known legal connotation and there are no precedents in international law for its interpretation, it was used in the Balfour Declaration and in the Mandate, both of which promised the establishment of a "Jewish National Home" without, however, defining its meaning. A statement on "British Policy in Palestine," issued on 3 June 1922 by the Colonial Office, placed a restrictive construction upon the Balfour Declaration, the statement included "the disappearance or subordination of the Arabic population, language or customs in Palestine" or "the imposition of Jewish nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole", and made it clear that in the eyes of the mandatory Power, the Jewish National Home was to be founded in Palestine and not that Palestine as a whole was to be converted into a Jewish National Home. The Committee noted that the construction, which restricted considerably the scope of the National Home, was made prior to the confirmation of the Mandate by the Council of the League of Nations and was formally accepted at the time by the Executive of the Zionist Organization.[106]

In March 1930, Lord Passfield, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, had written a Cabinet Paper[107] which said:

In the Balfour Declaration there is no suggestion that the Jews should be accorded a special or favoured position in Palestine as compared with the Arab inhabitants of the country, or that the claims of Palestinians to enjoy self-government (subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory as foreshadowed in Article XXII of the Covenant) should be curtailed in order to facilitate the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people." ... Zionist leaders have not concealed and do not conceal their opposition to the grant of any measure of self-government to the people of Palestine either now or for many years to come, some of them even go so far as to claim that that provision of Article 2 of the Mandate constitutes a bar to compliance with the demand of the Arabs for any measure of self-government. In view of the provisions of Article XXII of the Covenant and of the promises made to the Arabs on several occasions that claim is inadmissible.

The League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission took the position that the Mandate contained a dual obligation; in 1932 the Mandates Commission questioned the representative of the Mandatory on the demands made by the Arab population regarding the establishment of self-governing institutions, in accordance with various articles of the mandate, and in particular Article 2. The Chairman noted that "under the terms of the same article, the mandatory Power had long since set up the Jewish National Home."[108]

In 1937, the Peel Commission, a British Royal Commission headed by Earl Peel, proposed solving the Arab–Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into two states, the two main Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, had convinced the Zionist Congress to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.[30][31][32][109] The US Consul General at Jerusalem told the State Department that the Mufti had refused the principle of partition and declined to consider it, the Consul said that the Emir Abdullah urged acceptance on the ground that realities must be faced, but wanted modification of the proposed boundaries and Arab administrations in the neutral enclave. The Consul also noted that Nashashibi sidestepped the principle, but was willing to negotiate for favourable modifications.[110]

A collection of private correspondence published by David Ben Gurion contained a letter written in 1937 which explained that he was in favour of partition because he didn't envision a partial Jewish state as the end of the process. Ben Gurion wrote "What we want is not that the country be united and whole, but that the united and whole country be Jewish." He explained that a first-class Jewish army would permit Zionists to settle in the rest of the country with or without the consent of the Arabs.[111] Benny Morris said that both Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion saw partition as a stepping stone to further expansion and the eventual takeover of the whole of Palestine.[112] Former Israeli Foreign Minister and historian Schlomo Ben Ami writes that 1937 was the same year that the "Field Battalions" under Yitzhak Sadeh wrote the "Avner Plan", which anticipated and laid the groundwork for what would become in 1948, Plan D, it envisioned going far beyond any boundaries contained in the existing partition proposals and planned the conquest of the Galilee, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.[113]

In 1942, the Biltmore Program was adopted as the platform of the World Zionist Organization, it demanded "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." In 1946 an Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, also known as the Grady-Morrison Committee, noted that the demand for a Jewish State went beyond the obligations of either the Balfour Declaration or the Mandate and had been expressly disowned by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency as recently as 1932.[114] The Jewish Agency subsequently refused to accept the Grady Morrison Plan as the basis for discussion. A spokesman for the agency, Eliahu Epstein, told the US State Department that the Agency could not attend the London conference if the Grady-Morrison proposal was on the agenda, he stated that the Agency was unwilling to be placed in a position where it might have to compromise between the Grady-Morrison proposals on the one hand and its own partition plan on the other. He stated that the Agency had accepted partition as the solution for Palestine which it favoured.[115]

Land ownership

Palestine Index to Villages and Settlements, showing Land in Jewish Possession as at 31.12.44

After transition to the British rule, much of the agricultural land in Palestine (about one third of the whole territory) was still owned by the same landowners as under Ottoman rule, mostly powerful Arab clans and local Muslim sheikhs. Other lands had been held by foreign Christian organisations (most notably the Greek Orthodox Church), as well as Jewish private and Zionist organisations, and to lesser degree by small minorities of Bahai's, Samaritans and Circassians.

As of 1931, the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine was 26,625,600 dunams (26,625.6 km2), of which 8,252,900 dunams (8,252.9 km2) or 33% were arable.[116] Official statistics show that Jews privately and collectively owned 1,393,531 dunams (1,393.53 km2), or 5.23% of Palestine's total in 1945.[117][118] The Jewish owned agricultural land was largely located in the Galilee and along the coastal plain. Estimates of the total volume of land that Jews had purchased by 15 May 1948 are complicated by illegal and unregistered land transfers, as well as by the lack of data on land concessions from the Palestine administration after 31 March 1936. According to Avneri, Jews held 1,850,000 dunams (1,850 km2) of land in 1947, or 6.94% of the total.[119] Stein gives the estimate of 2,000,000 dunams (2,000 km2) as of May 1948, or 7.51% of the total.[120] According to Fischbach, By 1948, Jews and Jewish companies owned 20% percent of all cultivable land in the country.[121]

Nevertheless, the amount of land owned by Jews is easier to calculate than that owned by Arabs, it is difficult to reckon the total amount of land owned by Arabs (Muslim, Christian and Druze) in Mandatory Palestine.[citation needed] The 1945 UN estimate shows that Arab ownership of arable land was on average 68% of a district, ranging from 15% ownership in the Beer-Sheba district to 99% ownership in the Ramallah district, these data cannot be fully understood without comparing them to those of neighbouring countries: in Iraq, for instance, still in 1951 only 0.3 per cent of registered land (or 50 per cent of the total amount) was categorised as ‘private property’.[122]

Land ownership by district

The following table shows the 1945 land ownership of mandatory Palestine by district:

Land ownership by type

The land owned privately and collectively by Jews, Arabs and other non-Jews can be classified as urban, rural built-on, cultivable (farmed), and uncultivable, the following chart shows the ownership by Jews, Arabs and other non-Jews in each of the categories.

Land ownership of Palestine (in square kilometres) on 1 April 1943

Category

Arab / non-Jewish ownership

Jewish ownership

Total

Urban

76.66

70.11

146.77

Rural built-on

36.85

42.33

79.18

Cereal (taxable)

5,503.18

814.10

6,317.29

Cereal (not taxable)

900.29

51.05

951.34

Plantation

1,079.79

95.51

1,175.30

Citrus

145.57

141.19

286.76

Banana

2.30

1.43

3.73

Uncultivable

16,925.81

298.52

17,224.33

Total

24,670.46

1,514.25

26,184.70

Data is from Survey of Palestine (vol. II, p. 566).[125][126] By the end of 1946, Jewish ownership had increased to 1624 km2.[127]

List of Mandatory land laws

Land classification as prescribed in 1940.

Land Transfer Ordinance of 1920

1926 Correction of Land Registers Ordinance

Land Settlement Ordinance of 1928

Land Transfer Regulations of 1940

In February 1940, the British Government of Palestine promulgated the Land Transfer Regulations which divided Palestine into three regions with different restrictions on land sales applying to each; in Zone "A", which included the hill-country of Judea as a whole, certain areas in the Jaffa sub-District, and in the Gaza District, and the northern part of the Beersheba sub-District, new agreements for sale of land other than to a Palestinian Arab were forbidden without the High Commissioner's permission. In Zone "B", which included the Jezreel Valley, eastern Galilee, a parcel of coastal plain south of Haifa, a region northeast of the Gaza District, and the southern part of the Beersheba sub-District, sale of land by a Palestinian Arab was forbidden except to a Palestinian Arab with similar exceptions. In the "free zone", which consisted of Haifa Bay, the coastal plain from Zikhron Ya'akov to Yibna, and the neighbohood of Jerusalem, there were no restrictions, the reason given for the regulations was that the Mandatory was required to "ensur[e] that the rights and positions of other sections of the population are not prejudiced," and an assertion that "such transfers of land must be restricted if Arab cultivators are to maintain their existing standard of life and a considerable landless Arab population is not soon to be created"[128]

Demographics

British censuses and estimations

Population distribution at the end of the Mandate

In 1920, the majority of the approximately 750,000 people in this multi-ethnic region were Arabic-speaking Muslims, including a Bedouin population (estimated at 103,331 at the time of the 1922 census[129] and concentrated in the Beersheba area and the region south and east of it), as well as Jews (who comprised some 11% of the total) and smaller groups of Druze, Syrians, Sudanese, Circassians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Hejazi Arabs.

The first census of 1922 showed a population of 757,182, of whom 78% were Muslim, 11% Jewish and 10% Christian.

The second census, of 1931, gave a total population of 1,035,154 of whom 73.4% were Muslim, 16.9% Jewish and 8.6% Christian.

A discrepancy between the two censuses and records of births, deaths and immigration, led the authors of the second census to postulate the illegal immigration of about 9,000 Jews and 4,000 Arabs during the intervening years.[130]

There were no further censuses but statistics were maintained by counting births, deaths and migration. By the end of 1936 the total population was approximately 1,300,000, the Jews being estimated at 384,000, the Arabs had also increased their numbers rapidly, mainly as a result of the cessation of the military conscription imposed on the country by the Ottoman Empire, the campaign against malaria and a general improvement in health services. In absolute figures their increase exceeded that of the Jewish population, but proportionally, the latter had risen from 13 per cent of the total population at the census of 1922 to nearly 30 per cent at the end of 1936.[131]

Some components such as illegal immigration could only be estimated approximately, the White Paper of 1939, which placed immigration restrictions on Jews, stated that the Jewish population "has risen to some 450,000" and was "approaching a third of the entire population of the country". In 1945, a demographic study showed that the population had grown to 1,764,520, comprising 1,061,270 Muslims, 553,600 Jews, 135,550 Christians and 14,100 people of other groups.

Government and institutions

Britain continued the millet system of the Ottoman Empire whereby all matters of a religious nature and personal status were within the jurisdiction of Muslim courts and the courts of other recognised religions, called confessional communities. The High Commissioner established the Orthodox Rabbinate and retained a modified millet system which only recognised eleven religious communities: Muslims, Jews and nine Christian denominations (none of which were Christian Protestant churches). All those who were not members of these recognised communities were excluded from the millet arrangement, as a result, there was no possibility, for example, of marriages between confessional communities, and there were no civil marriages. Personal contacts between communities were nominal.

Apart from the Religious Courts, the judicial system was modelled on the British one, having a High Court with appellate jurisdiction and the power of review over the Central Court and the Central Criminal Court, the five consecutive Chief Justices were:

Economy

Between 1922 and 1947, the annual growth rate of the Jewish sector of the economy was 13.2%, mainly due to immigration and foreign capital, while that of the Arab was 6.5%. Per capita, these figures were 4.8% and 3.6% respectively. By 1936, the Jewish sector earned 2.6 times as much as Arabs.[137] Compared to other Arab countries, the Palestinian Arab individuals earned slightly more.[138]

The country's largest industrial zone was in Haifa, where many housing projects were built for employees.[140]

On the scale of the UN Human Development Index determined for around 1939, of 36 countries, Palestinian Jews were placed 15th, Palestinian Arabs 30th, Egypt 33rd and Turkey 35th,[141] the Jews in Palestine were mainly urban, 76.2% in 1942, while the Arabs were mainly rural, 68.3% in 1942.[142] Overall, Khalidi concludes that Palestinian Arab society, while overmatched by the Yishuv, was as advanced as any other Arab society in the region and considerably more than several.[143]

Literacy rates in 1932 were 86% for the Jews compared to 22% for the Palestinian Arabs, but Arab literacy rates steadily increased thereafter. Palestinian Arabs compared favorably in this respect to residents of Egypt and Turkey, but unfavourably to the Lebanese.[145]

Gallery

General Allenby's final attacks of the Palestine Campaign gave Britain control of the area

Field Marshal Allenby entering Jerusalem with British troops on 11 December 1917

^Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, 2002: "The first were the nationalists, who in 1918 formed the first Muslim-Christian associations to protest against the Jewish national home" p.558

^Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Second Edition, 2009: "An All-Palestine Congress, known also as the First Congress of the Muslim-Christian Societies, was organized by the MCA and convened in Jerusalem in February 1919." p.220-221

^'It was not scholarly religious credentials that made Hajj Amin an attractive candidate for president of the SMC in the eyes of colonial officials. Rather, it was the combination of his being an effective nationalist activist and a member of one of Jerusalem's most respected notable families that made it advantageous to align his interests with those of the British administration and thereby keep him on a short tether.' Weldon C. Matthews, Confronting an Empire, Constructing a Nation: Arab Nationalists and Popular Politics in Mandate Palestine, I.B.Tauris, 2006 pp. 31–32

^Excluding funds for land purchases. Sahar Huneidi, A Broken Trust: Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians 1920–1925, I.B. Tauris, London and New York, 2001 p. 38. The 'Jewish Agency', mentioned in article 4 of the Mandate only became the official term in 1928, at the time the organisation was called the Palestine Zionist Executive.

^ abBenny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 48; p. 11 "while the Zionist movement, after much agonising, accepted the principle of partition and the proposals as a basis for negotiation"; p. 49 "In the end, after bitter debate, the Congress equivocally approved—by a vote of 299 to 160—the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation."

^'Zionists Ready To Negotiate British Plan As Basis', The Times Thursday, 12 August 1937; p. 10; Issue 47761; col B.

^Morris, Benny (2011), Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1998, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, p. 138, ISBN9780307788054 Quote: "No Zionist can forgo the smallest portion of the Land Of Israel. [A] Jewish state in part [of Palestine] is not an end, but a beginning ….. Our possession is important not only for itself … through this we increase our power, and every increase in power facilitates getting hold of the country in its entirety. Establishing a [small] state …. will serve as a very potent lever in our historical effort to redeem the whole country"

^Quote from a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive in June 1938: “[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state, we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel.” inMasalha, Nur (1992), Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948, Inst for Palestine Studies, p. 107, ISBN9780887282355; andSegev, Tom (2000), One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, Henry Holt and Company, p. 403, ISBN9780805048483

^From a letter from Chaim Weizmann to Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, High Commissioner for Palestine, while the Peel Commission was convening in 1937: “We shall spread in the whole country in the course of time ….. this is only an arrangement for the next 25 to 30 years.” Masalha, Nur (1992), Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948, Inst for Palestine Studies, p. 62, ISBN9780887282355

^Secret World War II documents released by the UK in July 2001, include documents on Operation ATLAS (See References: KV 2/400–402. A German task force led by Kurt Wieland parachuted into Palestine in September 1944, this was one of the last German efforts in the region to attack the Jewish community in Palestine and undermine British rule by supplying local Arabs with cash, arms and sabotage equipment. The team was captured shortly after landing.

^Corrigan, Gordon. The Second World War Thomas Dunne Books, 2011 ISBN9780312577094 p. 523, last paragraph

^Snetsinger, John (1974). Truman, the Jewish vote, and the creation of Israel. Hoover Institution. pp. 66–67.

^Sarsar, Saliba (2004). "The question of Palestine and United States behavior at the United Nations". International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. 17 (3): 457–470. doi:10.1023/B:IJPS.0000019613.01593.5e.

^See paragraphs 49, 70, and 129 of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory PDF and PAUL J. I. M. DE WAART (2005). "International Court of Justice Firmly Walled in the Law of Power in the Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process." Leiden Journal of International Law, 18, pp. 467–487, doi:10.1017/S0922156505002839

^See Foreign relations of the United States, 1947. The Near East and Africa Volume V, p. 1033

^In June of 1947, the British Mandate Government of Palestine had published the following statistics: "It is estimated that over a quarter of the Jewish population in Palestine are Sephardic Jews of whom some 60,000 were born of families resident in Palestine for centuries. The bulk of the Sephardic community, however, consists of oriental Jews emanating from Syria, Egypt, Persia, Iraq, Georgia, Bokhara and other Eastern countries, they are confined mainly to the larger towns ..." (From: Supplement to Survey of Palestine - Notes compiled for the information of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine - June 1947, Gov. Printer Jerusalem, pp. 150–151)

^A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. 1. Palestine: Govt. printer. 1946. p. 185.

^A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. 1. Palestine: Govt. printer. 1946. p. 210: "Arab illegal immigration is mainly ... casual, temporary and seasonal". pp. 212: "The conclusion is that Arab illegal immigration for the purpose of permanent settlement is insignificant".

^J. McCarthy (1995). The population of Palestine: population history and statistics of the late Ottoman period and the Mandate. Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press.

^Supplement to Survey of Palestine - Notes compiled for the information of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine - June 1947, Gov. Printer Jerusalem, p. 18

^Michael R. Fischbach (13 August 2013). Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries. Columbia University Press. p. 24. ISBN978-0-231-51781-2. By 1948, after several decades of Jewish immigration, the Jewish population of Palestine had risen to about one third of the total, and Jews and Jewish companies owned 20 percent of all cultivable land in the country

^A Survey of Palestine (Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry), vol. 1, chapter VIII, section 7, Government Printer of Jerusalem, pp. 260–262

^prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. (1991). A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December, 1945 and January, 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. 1. Institute for Palestine Studies. pp. 12–13. ISBN0-88728-211-3.

^Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press. pp. 50, 66, 67, 72. Retrieved 24 July 2013. p. 50, at 1947 "Haj Amin al-Husseini went one better: he denounced also the minority report, which, in his view, legitimized the Jewish foothold in Palestine, a "partition in disguise," as he put it."; p. 66, at 1946 "The League demanded independence for Palestine as a "unitary" state, with an Arab majority and minority rights for the Jews. The AHC went one better and insisted that the proportion of Jews to Arabs in the unitary state should stand at one to six, meaning that only Jews who lived in Palestine before the British Mandate be eligible for citizenship"; p. 67, at 1947 "The League’s Political Committee met in Sofar, Lebanon, on 16–19 September, and urged the Palestine Arabs to fight partition, which it called "aggression," "without mercy." The League promised them, in line with Bludan, assistance "in manpower, money and equipment" should the United Nations endorse partition."; p. 72, at Dec 1947 "The League vowed, in very general language, "to try to stymie the partition plan and prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine,

Emirate of Transjordan
–
The Emirate of Transjordan, also hyphenated as Trans-Jordan and previously known as Transjordania or Trans-Jordania, was a British protectorate established in April 1921. There were many urban settlements east of the Jordan River, the largest one in Al-Salt, the Hashemite dynasty ruled the protectorate, as well as the neighbouring Mandatory Iraq. I

1.
Herbert Samuel's proclamation in Salt, August 1920, for which he was admonished by Curzon

British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
–
The Mandate of Palestine was superseded with UN Charter, Chapter XII, Article 80 UN Trusteeship Agreement, UNGA181 of November 29,1947. The Palestine Mandate was administrated by the United Kingdom from September 29,1922 to November 29,1947, Government of the State of Israel was proclaimed over parts of this territory on 14 May,1948. The approximat

1.
Map presented by TE Lawrence to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918

2.
British Command Paper 1785, December 1922, containing the Mandate for Palestine and the Transjordan memorandum

3.
British memorandum on Palestine ahead of the Paris Peace Conference

4.
British Cabinet map showing boundaries of the proposed mandates in early 1921, including those areas not yet delimited

League of Nations mandate
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These were of the nature of both a treaty and a constitution, which contained minority rights clauses that provided for the rights of petition and adjudication by the International Court. The mandate system was established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, most of the remaining mandates of the League of Nations thus eventua

United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border wi

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The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

Flag of Palestine
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The Palestinian flag is based on the Flag of the Arab Revolt, and is used to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people. The flag is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. Prior to being the flag of the Palestinian people, it was the flag of the short lived Arab Federation of Iraq,

Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the

English language
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English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language i

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The opening to the Old English epic poem Beowulf, handwritten in half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."

Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and

Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languag

Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and u

Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God estab

Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah

Druze
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The Druze are an esoteric ethnoreligious group originating in Western Asia who self-identify as unitarians. Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of all Mandaeans and Mahra from Druze Mountain, the Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn-Ali, al-Hakim, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Akhenaten. T

League of Nations Mandate
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These were of the nature of both a treaty and a constitution, which contained minority rights clauses that provided for the rights of petition and adjudication by the International Court. The mandate system was established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, most of the remaining mandates of the League of Nations thus eventua

Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
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Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC, was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931-35. He was the first nominally practising Jew—although noted for his personal atheism—to serve as a Cabinet minister, Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party to hold one of the four Great Offices of State. He also ser

Alan G. Cunningham
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General Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham GCMG, KCB, DSO, MC was a senior officer of the British Army noted for his victories over Italian forces in the East African Campaign during the Second World War. Later he served as the seventh and last High Commissioner of Palestine and he was the younger brother of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cunningham of Hyndhope

1.
Lieutenant General Sir Alan Cunningham as commander of the 8th Army

Interwar period
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There were numerous new nations in Eastern Europe, most of them small in size. The United States gained dominance in world finance, by the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with the second half of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the Golden Twenties. The Roaring Twenties highlighted novel and highly social and cultural tre

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Europe, 1923

2.
Population densities in Europe, 1923

World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

Israeli Declaration of Independence
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It declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, which would come into effect on termination of the British Mandate at midnight that day. The event is celebrated annually in Israel with a national holiday Yom Haatzmaut on 5 Iyar of every year according to the Hebrew calendar, the possibility of a

Egyptian pound
–
The Egyptian pound is the currency of Egypt. It is divided into 100 piastres, or ersh, or 1,000 millimes, the Egyptian pound is frequently abbreviated as LE or L. E. which stands for livre égyptienne. E£ and £E are commonly used on the internet, the name Genēh is derived from the Guinea coin, which had almost the same value of 100 piastres at the e

1.
50 Egyptian pound promissory note issued and hand-signed by Gen. Gordon during the Siege of Khartoum (26 April 1884)

2.
Obverse of £1

3.
The first E£1 banknote issued in 1899

Palestine pound
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It was divided into 1000 mils. The Palestine pound was also the currency of Transjordan until 1949, until 1918, Ottoman Levant was an integral part of the Ottoman Empire and therefore used its currency, the Ottoman lira. Following the institution of the British Mandate for Palestine, the Egyptian pound also circulated alongside the Ottoman lira unt

Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
–
The administration ended following the assignment of the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon and British Mandate for Palestine at the 19–26 April 1920 San Remo conference. Following British and French occupation, the region was split into three administrative sub-units, which varied little from the previous Ottoman divisions. But, success of Turkis

1.
Area of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in Syria and Palestine

All-Palestine Government
–
The All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War to govern the Egyptian-controlled enclave in Gaza. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan, though jurisdiction of the Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its ef

State of Palestine
–
The State of Palestine claims the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the designated capital. Most of the areas claimed by the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and its independence was declared on 15 November 1988 by the Palestine Liberation Organization in Algiers as a gover

Governance of the Gaza Strip
–
The governance of the Gaza Strip is carried out by the Hamas administration, led by Ismail Haniyeh, from 2007, until 2014 and again from 2016. The Hamas administration is referred to as the Hamas government in Gaza. After the takeover in Gaza by Hamas on 14 June 2007, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government, both adm

History of Israel
–
The History of Israel encompasses the Jewish history in the Land of Israel, as well as the history of the modern State of Israel. Modern Israel and the West Bank are roughly located on the site of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and it is the birthplace of the Hebrew language and of the Abrahamic religions, and contains sites sacred to Judaism, Chri

2.
The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

History of ancient Israel and Judah
–
Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of the ancient Levant. The Kingdom of Israel emerged as an important local power by the 10th century BCE before falling to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE and this, the last nominally independent Judean kingdom, came to an end in 63 BCE with its conquest by Pompey of Rome. East of the plain and the

3.
The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

Prehistory of the Levant
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The prehistory of the Levant includes the various cultural changes that occurred, as revealed by archaeological evidence, prior to recorded traditions in the area of the Levant. Not only have many cultures and traditions of humans lived here, in addition, this region is one of the centers for the development of agriculture. The lithic assemblages r

1.
Map of the Levant

Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Ca

1.
A 1692 depiction of Canaan, by Philip Lea

2.
Map of the Near East by Robert de Vaugondy (1762), indicating Canaan as limited to the Holy Land, to the exclusion of Lebanon and Syria

3.
Map of Canaan, with the border defined by Numbers 34:1–12 shown in red.

4.
Amarna tablet EA 9

Israelites
–
The Israelites were a Semitic-speaking people of the ancient Near East, who inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. The ancient Israelites are considered to be an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanite populations that inhabited the Southern Levant, Syria, ancient Israel. In the period of the monarchy it was only used to

1.
Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel, from a synagogue wall in Jerusalem

2.
The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
–
The United Monarchy is the name given to the Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. This is traditionally dated between 1050 and 930 BCE, modern historians are divided on the historicity of the United Monarchy as described in the Bible. There is no evidence of a united K

Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
–
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel was one of two successor states to the former United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Historians often refer to the Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom or as the Kingdom of Samaria to differentiate it from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Kingdom of Israel existed roughly from 930 BCE until 7

1.
Map of the region in the 9th century BC

Kingdom of Judah
–
The Kingdom of Judah was an Iron Age kingdom of the Southern Levant. The Hebrew Bible depicts it as the successor to a United Monarchy, in the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated, limited to small rural settlements, most of them unfortified. Significant academic debate exists around the ch

1.
Mesha Stele c. 850 BCE – An inscribed stone set up c. 840 BCE by Mesha of Moab tells how Chemosh, the God of Moab, had been angry with his people and allowed them to be subjugated to Israel, but at length assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab.

2.
Map of the region in the 9th century BCE

3.
Stamped bulla of a servant of King Hezekiah used to seal a papyrus document

Second Temple period
–
The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. The sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots were formed during this period, the Second Temple period ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. After the death of the

Yehud Medinata
–
The area of Yehud Medinata corresponded to the previous Babylonian province with the same name, formed after the fall of the kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Yehud Medinata continued to exist for two centuries, until being incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the conquests of Alexander the Great. There is not complete a

3.
Coins bearing the inscription YHD, or Yehud. The coin at top shows the god YHWH, the coin at bottom right has an image of the owl of Athena (Athenian coinage was the standard for Mediterranean trade).

Coele-Syria
–
Coele-Syria, Coele Syria, Coelesyria, also rendered as Coelosyria and Celesyria, otherwise Hollow Syria, was a region of Syria in classical antiquity. It probably derived from the Aramaic for all of the region of Syria, the area now forms part of the modern nations of Lebanon, Syria and Israel. It is widely accepted that the term Coele is a transcr

Hasmonean dynasty
–
The Hasmonean dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea, some modern scholars refer to this period as an independent kingdom of Israel. In 63 BCE, the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Repu

Herodian dynasty
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The Herodian Dynasty was a Judean dynasty of Idumaean/Edomite descent. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great, who assumed the throne of Judea, with Roman support and his kingdom lasted until his death in 4 BCE, when it was divided between his sons as a Tetrarchy, which lasted for about 10 years. During the time of the Hasmonean ruler John

1.
Coin of Herod the Great

Herodian kingdom
–
The Herodian kingdom of Judaea was a client state of the Roman Republic from 37 BCE, when Herod the Great was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the kingdom was divided among his sons into the Herodian Tetrarchy, the first intervention of Rome in the region dates from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mit

3.
The taking of Jerusalem by Herod the Great, 37 BCE, by Jean Fouquet, late 15th century.

Herodian Tetrarchy
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The Herodian Tetrarchy was formed following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, when his kingdom was divided between his sons as an inheritance. However, other parts of the Herodian Tetrarchy continued to function under Herodians, thus, Philip the Tetrarch ruled Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis until 34 CE, while Herod Antipas rul

Judea (Roman province)
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It was named after Herod Archelauss Tetrarchy of Judea, but the Roman province encompassed a much larger territory. The name Judea was derived from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BCE, Judea province was the scene of unrest at its founding in 6 CE during the Census of Quirinius and several wars were fought in its history, known as the Jewis

History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages
–
After this, the city remained a backwater of the late medieval Muslim empires and would not again exceed a population of 10,000 until the 16th century. It was passed back and forth through various Muslim factions until decidedly conquered by the Ottomans in 1517, Jerusalem reached a peak in size and population at the end of the Second Temple Period

Syria Palaestina
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Syria Palaestina was a Roman province between 135 and about 390. It was established by the merger of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea, shortly after 193, the northern regions were split off as Syria Coele in the north and Phoenice in the south, and the province Syria Palaestina was reduced to Judea. The earliest numismatic evidence for the name Syria P

2.
Inscription honouring Julius Aurelius Zenobius, the father of Queen Zenobia, at Palmyra.

Diocese of the East
–
The Diocese of the East was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of the western Middle East, between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. Its capital was at Antioch, and its governor had the title of comes Orientis instead of the ordinary vicarius. The diocese was established after the reforms of Diocletian, and was su

1.
The Diocese of the East c. 400.

Palaestina Prima
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Palæstina Prima or Palaestina I was a Byzantine province from 390, until the 7th century. It was lost to the Sassanid Empire in 614, but was re-annexed in 628, despite Christian domination, through 4th and 5th centuries Samaritans developed a semi-autonomy in the hill country of Samaria, a move which gradually escalated into a series of open revolt

1.
Byzantine provinces in the 5th century

Palaestina Secunda
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Palæstina Secunda or Palaestina II was a Byzantine province from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634-636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised the Galilee, Yizrael Valley, Bet Shean Valley and southern part of the Golan plateau, the major cities of the province were Scythopolis, Capernaum and Naza

1.
Byzantine Palestine in the 5th century

2.
Ruins of an ancient synagogue in the late Roman town of Capernaum, Palaestina Secunda

Samaritan revolts
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The Samaritan revolts were a series of insurrections during the 5th and 6th centuries in Palaestina Prima province, launched by the Samaritans against the Byzantine Empire. The revolts were marked by violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan populati

1.
A coin with the inscription of Roman stairs of Neapolis to Mt. Gerizim

2.
Diocese of the Orient at the Byzantine period, where Samaritans largely inhabited Palaestina Prima (Samaria).

Jewish revolt against Heraclius
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Following the Battle of Antioch in 613, Shahrbaraz led his forces through Palaestina Secunda and into Palaestina Prima provinces. In 614, Shahrbaraz conquered Caesarea Maritima, the capital of the Palaestina Prima province. The Persian army reinforced by Jewish forces led by Nehemiah ben Hushiel, after only a few months a Christian revolt occurred.

1.
Jewish revolt against Heraclius

Bilad al-Sham
–
Bilad al-Sham was a Rashidun, Umayyad and later Abbasid Caliphate province in the region of Syria. The name Bilad aš-Šām means land to the north, or literally land on the left-hand, the name given to the Levant by the Arab conquerors was Aš-Šām The North. The population of the region did not become predominantly Muslim and Arab in identity until ne

Jund Filastin
–
Jund Filastin was one of the military districts of the Ummayad and Abbasid Caliphate province of Bilad al-Sham, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s. According to al-Biladhuri, the towns of the district, following its conquest by the Rashidun Caliphate, were Gaza, Sebastia, Nablus, Caesarea, Ludd, Yibna, Imwas, Jaffa,

1.
A 1759 map entitled The Holy Land, or Palestine, showing not only the Ancient Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in which the 12 Tribes have been distinguished, but also their placement in different periods as indicated in the Holy Scriptures by Tobias Conrad Lotter, Geographer. Augsburg, Germany

1.
Emirate of Transjordan
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The Emirate of Transjordan, also hyphenated as Trans-Jordan and previously known as Transjordania or Trans-Jordania, was a British protectorate established in April 1921. There were many urban settlements east of the Jordan River, the largest one in Al-Salt, the Hashemite dynasty ruled the protectorate, as well as the neighbouring Mandatory Iraq. In 1949 the countrys name was changed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Under the Ottoman Empire, most of Transjordan was part of the Syria Vilayet, the inhabitants of northern Transjordan had traditionally associated with Syria, and those of southern Transjordan with the Arabian Peninsula. During World War I, Transjordan saw much of the fighting of the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule. Assisted by the British army officer T. E. Lawrence, in the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, Transjordan was allocated to Britain. In March 1920, the Hashemite Kingdom of Syria was declared by Faisal I of Iraq in Damascus which encompassed most of what later became Transjordan, at this point, the southern part of Transjordan was part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz. Transjordan became, for a time, a no mans land. In August 1920, Sir Herbert Samuels request to extend the frontier of British territory beyond the River Jordan, following Curzons instruction Samuel set up a meeting with Transjordanian leaders where he presented British plans for the territory. The local leaders were reassured that Transjordan would not come under Palestinian administration, without facing opposition Abdullah and his army had effectively occupied most of Transjordan by March 1921. His Majestys Government are responsible under the terms of the Mandate for establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people, the western boundary of the Turkish vilayet of Damascus before the war was the River Jordan. Palestine and Trans-Jordan do not, therefore, stand upon quite the same footing, at the same time, the two areas are economically interdependent, and their development must be considered as a single problem. Further, His Majestys Government have been entrusted with the Mandate for Palestine, in default of this assumption Trans-Jordan would be left, under article 132 of the Treaty of Sèvres, to the disposal of the principal Allied Powers. Some means must be found of giving effect in Trans-Jordan to the terms of the Mandate consistently with recognition, the Cairo Conference of March 1921 was convened by Winston Churchill, then Britains Colonial Secretary. With the mandates of Palestine and Iraq awarded to Britain, Churchill wished to consult with Middle East experts, an additional outstanding question was the policy to be adopted in Transjordan to prevent anti-French military actions from being launched within the allied British zone of influence. The Hashemites were Associated Powers during the war, and a solution was urgently needed. The two most significant decisions of the conference were to offer the throne of Iraq to emir Faisal ibn Hussein, Abdullah was then appointed Emir of the Transjordania region in April 1921. It was approved by Curzon on 31 March 1921, and the final draft of the mandate was forwarded to the League of Nations on 22 July 1922

Emirate of Transjordan
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Herbert Samuel's proclamation in Salt, August 1920, for which he was admonished by Curzon
Emirate of Transjordan
–
Flag
Emirate of Transjordan
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1930 Transjordan stamp showing king (then emir) Abdullah.

2.
British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
–
The Mandate of Palestine was superseded with UN Charter, Chapter XII, Article 80 UN Trusteeship Agreement, UNGA181 of November 29,1947. The Palestine Mandate was administrated by the United Kingdom from September 29,1922 to November 29,1947, Government of the State of Israel was proclaimed over parts of this territory on 14 May,1948. The approximate northern border with the French Mandate was agreed upon in the Paulet–Newcombe Agreement of 23 December 1920, Transjordan had been a no mans land following the July 1920 Battle of Maysalun. The Trans-Jordan Memorandum provided the detail to support Article 25 of the Mandate and it also established a separate Administration of Trans-Jordan for the application of the Mandate, under the general supervision of Great Britain. Transjordan became largely autonomous under British tutelage according to an agreement of February 20,1928, the League of Nations welcomed the end of the mandate in Transjordan on 18 April 1946. The conquest of Palestine became part of British strategies aimed at establishing a bridge between the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. This would enable rapid deployment of troops to the Gulf, then the line of defence for British interests in India. A land bridge was also an alternative to the Suez Canal, the committee considered various scenarios and provided guidelines for negotiations with France, Italy, and Russia regarding the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The Committee recommended in favour of the creation of a decentralised, at the same time, the British and French also opened overseas fronts with the Gallipoli and Mesopotamian campaigns. In Gallipoli, the Turks successfully repelled the British, French and Australian, from 1915, Zionist leader and anglophile Zeev Jabotinsky was pressing the British to agree to the formation of a Zionist volunteer corps that would serve under the aegis of the British army. The British eventually agreed to set up the Zion Mule Corps, after Lloyd George was made prime minister during the war, the British waged the Sinai and Palestine Campaign under General Allenby. This time the British agreed to a Jewish Legion, which participated in the invasion, russian Jews regarded the German army as a liberator and the creation of the Legion was designed to encourage them to participate in the war on Britains side. At the same time, British intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence was encouraging an Arab Revolt led by the Sharif of Mecca. The British defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in 1917 and occupied Ottoman Syria, the land remained under British military administration for the remainder of the war, and beyond. The Ottoman Empire capitulated on 30 October 1918, and on 23 November 1918, the Middle East was divided into three OETAs. Occupied Enemy Territory Administration South extended from the Egyptian border of Sinai into Palestine and Lebanon as far north as Acre and Nablus, a temporary British military governor Major General Sir Arthur Wigram Money would administer this sector. In October 1919, British forces in Syria and the last British soldiers stationed east of the Jordan were withdrawn and the region came under exclusive control of Faisal bin Hussein from Damascus. In 1916, Britain and France concluded the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which proposed to divide the Middle East between them into spheres of influence, with Palestine as an international enclave, the British made two potentially conflicting promises regarding the territory it was expecting to acquire

British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
–
Map presented by TE Lawrence to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918
British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
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British Command Paper 1785, December 1922, containing the Mandate for Palestine and the Transjordan memorandum
British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
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British memorandum on Palestine ahead of the Paris Peace Conference
British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)
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British Cabinet map showing boundaries of the proposed mandates in early 1921, including those areas not yet delimited

3.
League of Nations mandate
–
These were of the nature of both a treaty and a constitution, which contained minority rights clauses that provided for the rights of petition and adjudication by the International Court. The mandate system was established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, most of the remaining mandates of the League of Nations thus eventually became United Nations Trust Territories. The mandate system was established by Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, all of the territories subject to League of Nations mandates were previously controlled by states defeated in World War I, principally Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The mandates were fundamentally different from the protectorates in that the Mandatory power undertook obligations to the inhabitants of the territory, the process of establishing the mandates consisted of two phases, The formal removal of sovereignty of the state previously controlling the territory. The transfer of powers to individual states among the Allied Powers. Ottoman territorial claims were first addressed in the Treaty of Sèvres, the Turkish territories were allotted among the Allied Powers at the San Remo conference in 1920. Peace treaties have played an important role in the formation of the law of nations. Many rules that govern the relations between states have introduced and codified in the terms of peace treaties. The first twenty-six articles of the Treaty of Versailles contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and it contained the international machinery for the enforcement of the terms of the treaty. Article 22 established a system of Mandates to administer former colonies and territories, Article 22 was written two months before the signing of the peace treaty, before it was known what communities, peoples, or territories were related to sub-paragraphs 4,5, and 6. The treaty was signed, and the conference had been adjourned. The mandates were arrangements guaranteed by, or arising out of the treaty which stipulated that mandates were to be exercised on behalf of the League. The decisions taken at the conferences of the Council of Four were not made on the basis of consultation or League unanimity as stipulated by the Covenant, as a result, the actions of the conferees were viewed by some as having no legitimacy. He pointed out that the League of Nations could do nothing to alter their arrangements, since the League could only act by unanimous consent of its members – including the UK and France. United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. He explained that the system of mandates was a created by the Great Powers to conceal their division of the spoils of war under the color of international law. If the former German and Ottoman territories had been ceded to the victorious powers directly, under the plan of the US Constitution the Congress was delegated the power to declare or define the Law of Nations in cases where its terms might be vague or indefinite. The US Senate refused to ratify the Covenant of the League of Nations, the legal issues surrounding the rule by force and the lack of self-determination under the system of mandates were cited by the Senators who withheld their consent

4.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

5.
Flag of Palestine
–
The Palestinian flag is based on the Flag of the Arab Revolt, and is used to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people. The flag is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. Prior to being the flag of the Palestinian people, it was the flag of the short lived Arab Federation of Iraq, the flag of the Arab Revolt had the same graphic form, but the colours were arranged differently. The flag used by the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century is the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt, the origins of the flag are the subject of dispute and mythology. Yet another version is that the flag was designed by Sir Mark Sykes of the British Foreign Office, whatever the correct story, the flag was used by Sharif Hussein by 1917 at the latest and quickly became regarded as the flag of the Arab national movement in the Mashriq. On October 18,1948, the flag of the Arab Revolt was adopted, a modified version has been used in Palestine at least since the late 1930s and was officially adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964. On November 15,1988 the PLO adopted the flag as the flag of the State of Palestine, on the ground the flag became widely used since the Oslo Agreements, with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. Today the flag is flown widely by Palestinians and their supporters, in 1967, immediately following the Six Day War, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. A1980 law forbidding artwork of political significance banned artwork composed of its four colours, since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the ban has been abolished

6.
Jerusalem
–
Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem

7.
English language
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English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩

English language
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The opening to the Old English epic poem Beowulf, handwritten in half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
English language
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Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
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Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales c.1400

8.
Arabic language
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested

Arabic language
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The Galland Manuscript of One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
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al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script)
Arabic language
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Bilingual traffic sign in Qatar.
Arabic language
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Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.

9.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it

10.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion

11.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism

12.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin

13.
Druze
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The Druze are an esoteric ethnoreligious group originating in Western Asia who self-identify as unitarians. Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of all Mandaeans and Mahra from Druze Mountain, the Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Hamza ibn-Ali, al-Hakim, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Akhenaten. The Epistles of Wisdom is the text of the Druze faith. The Druze follow theophany, and believe in reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul, at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind. Although dwarfed by other, larger communities, the Druze community played an important role in shaping the history of the Levant, even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, Druze are not considered Muslims. Fatimid Caliph Ali az-Zahir, whose father al-Hakim is a key figure in the Druze faith, was harsh, causing the death of many Druze in Antioch, Aleppo. Persecution flared up during the rule of the Mamluks and Ottomans, most recently, Druze were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Al-Qaeda in order to cleanse Syria and neighboring countries of non-Islamic influence. The Druze faith is one of the religious groups in the Levant. They are found primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, with communities in Jordan. The oldest and most densely-populated Druze communities exist in Mount Lebanon, the Druze people reside primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. The Institute of Druze Studies estimates that forty to fifty percent of Druze live in Syria, thirty to forty percent in Lebanon, six to seven percent in Israel, about two percent of the Druze population are also scattered within other countries in the Middle East. Large communities of Druze also live outside the Middle East, in Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the United States and they use the Arabic language and follow a social pattern very similar to those of the other peoples of the Levant. The number of Druze people worldwide is between 800,000 and one million, with the vast majority residing in the Levant, the name Druze is derived from the name of Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazī who was an early preacher. Although the Druze consider ad-Darazī a heretic, the name has been used to identify them, before becoming public, the movement was secretive and held closed meetings in what was known as Sessions of Wisdom. In 1016 ad-Darazi and his followers openly proclaimed their beliefs and called people to them, causing riots in Cairo against the Unitarian movement including Hamza bin Ali. This led to the suspension of the movement for one year, although the Druze religious books describe ad-Darazi as the insolent one and as the calf who is narrow-minded and hasty, the name Druze is still used for identification and for historical reasons. In 1018 ad-Darazi was assassinated for his teachings, some claim that he was executed by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Some authorities see in the name Druze a descriptive epithet, derived from Arabic dāresah, others have speculated that the word comes from the Persian word Darazo or from Shaykh Hussayn ad-Darazī, who was one of the early converts to the faith

14.
League of Nations Mandate
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These were of the nature of both a treaty and a constitution, which contained minority rights clauses that provided for the rights of petition and adjudication by the International Court. The mandate system was established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, most of the remaining mandates of the League of Nations thus eventually became United Nations Trust Territories. The mandate system was established by Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, all of the territories subject to League of Nations mandates were previously controlled by states defeated in World War I, principally Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The mandates were fundamentally different from the protectorates in that the Mandatory power undertook obligations to the inhabitants of the territory, the process of establishing the mandates consisted of two phases, The formal removal of sovereignty of the state previously controlling the territory. The transfer of powers to individual states among the Allied Powers. Ottoman territorial claims were first addressed in the Treaty of Sèvres, the Turkish territories were allotted among the Allied Powers at the San Remo conference in 1920. Peace treaties have played an important role in the formation of the law of nations. Many rules that govern the relations between states have introduced and codified in the terms of peace treaties. The first twenty-six articles of the Treaty of Versailles contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and it contained the international machinery for the enforcement of the terms of the treaty. Article 22 established a system of Mandates to administer former colonies and territories, Article 22 was written two months before the signing of the peace treaty, before it was known what communities, peoples, or territories were related to sub-paragraphs 4,5, and 6. The treaty was signed, and the conference had been adjourned. The mandates were arrangements guaranteed by, or arising out of the treaty which stipulated that mandates were to be exercised on behalf of the League. The decisions taken at the conferences of the Council of Four were not made on the basis of consultation or League unanimity as stipulated by the Covenant, as a result, the actions of the conferees were viewed by some as having no legitimacy. He pointed out that the League of Nations could do nothing to alter their arrangements, since the League could only act by unanimous consent of its members – including the UK and France. United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. He explained that the system of mandates was a created by the Great Powers to conceal their division of the spoils of war under the color of international law. If the former German and Ottoman territories had been ceded to the victorious powers directly, under the plan of the US Constitution the Congress was delegated the power to declare or define the Law of Nations in cases where its terms might be vague or indefinite. The US Senate refused to ratify the Covenant of the League of Nations, the legal issues surrounding the rule by force and the lack of self-determination under the system of mandates were cited by the Senators who withheld their consent

15.
Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
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Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC, was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931-35. He was the first nominally practising Jew—although noted for his personal atheism—to serve as a Cabinet minister, Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party to hold one of the four Great Offices of State. He also served as a diplomat, one of the adherents of New Liberalism, Samuel helped to draft and present social reform legislation while serving as a Liberal cabinet member. Herbert Samuel was born at Claremont No.11 Belvidere Road, Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire, the building now houses part of the Belvedere Academy. He was the brother of Sir Stuart Samuel, educated at University College School in Hampstead, London and Balliol College, Oxford. He had a Jewish upbringing, but in 1892, while at Oxford he renounced all religious belief, Samuel worked through the influence of Charles Darwin and the book On Compromise by senior Liberal politician John Morley. He remained a member of the Jewish community, however, to please his wife, and kept kosher, Samuel unsuccessfully fought two general elections before being elected a Member of Parliament at the Cleveland by-election,1902, as a member of the Liberal Party. He put forward the idea of establishing a British Protectorate over Palestine in 1915, in December 1916 Asquith was replaced as Prime Minister by Lloyd George. Lloyd George asked Samuel to continue as Home Secretary, but Samuel chose to resign instead and he attempted to strike a balance between giving support to the new government while remaining loyal to Asquith. At the end of the war he sought election at the election of 1918 as a Liberal in support of the Coalition government. However, the endorsement was given to his Unionist opponent. Initially he had not been a supporter of womens suffrage but changed his position, in 1917 a Speakers Conference was charged with looking into giving women the vote but did not have as its terms of reference, consideration to women standing as candidates for parliament. However, Samuel moved a motion on 23 October 1918 to allow women to be eligible as Members of Parliament. The vote was passed by 274 to 25 and the government rushed through a Bill to make it law in time for the 1918 General Election, according to Weizmanns memoirs, Samuel was already an avid believer in Zionism, and believed that Weizmanns demands were too modest. Samuel did not want to enter into a discussion of his plans. One month later, Samuel circulated a memorandum entitled The Future of Palestine to his cabinet colleagues, in 1917, Britain occupied Palestine during the course of the First World War. Samuel lost his seat in the election of 1918 and became a candidate to represent British interests in the territory and he was appointed to the position of High Commissioner in 1920, before the Council of the League of Nations approved a British mandate for Palestine. Nonetheless, the government withdrew to Cairo in preparation for the expected British Mandate

16.
Alan G. Cunningham
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General Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham GCMG, KCB, DSO, MC was a senior officer of the British Army noted for his victories over Italian forces in the East African Campaign during the Second World War. Later he served as the seventh and last High Commissioner of Palestine and he was the younger brother of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cunningham of Hyndhope. Cunningham was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Professor Daniel John Cunningham. He was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy before taking a commission in the Royal Artillery in 1906, during the First World War, he served with the Royal Horse Artillery, and was awarded a Military Cross in 1915 and the Distinguished Service Order in 1918. For two years after the war he served as a officer in the Straits Settlements. In 1937 Cunningham became the Commander Royal Artillery of the 1st Infantry Division and this was followed in 1938 by promotion to major general and appointment as commander of the 5th Anti-Aircraft Division. Cunninghams offensive started with the occupation of the Indian Ocean ports of Kismayu and Mogadishu, on 6 April 1941, Cunninghams forces entered Addis Ababa. On 11 May the northernmost units of Cunninghams forces, under South African Brigadier Dan Pienaar linked with Platts forces under Major-General Mosley Mayne to besiege Amba Alagi. On 20 May, Mayne took the surrender of the Italian Army, led by Amedeo di Savoia, 3rd Duke of Aosta, Cunninghams campaign was a swift action which resulted in the taking of 50,000 prisoners and the loss of only 500 of his men. His success in East Africa led to Cunninghams appointment to command the newly formed Eighth Army in North Africa in August 1941 and his immediate task was to lead General Sir Claude Auchinlecks Libyan Desert offensive which began on 18 November. However, early losses led Cunningham to recommend the offensive be curtailed and this advice was not accepted by his superiors, and Auchinleck relieved him of his command. He returned to Britain to serve the remainder of the war as Commandant of the Staff College, Camberley and General Officer C-in-C in Northern Ireland and Eastern Command. After the war, Cunningham, who was promoted to general on 30 October 1945, returned to the Middle East as High Commissioner of Palestine, he served in the position from 1945 to 1948. As such, he was in charge of the confrontation with Hagana, Etzel, Cunningham had retired from the army in October 1946 when he relinquished the role of Commander-in-Chief Palestine, but retained the job of High Commissioner until 1948. The photo of Cunningham taking down the British flag at the port of Haifa is a historical photo often reproduced in Israeli history textbooks, Cunningham served as Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery until 1954. Cunningham died in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England and he is buried with his father and mother under a very simple monument near the Dean Gallery entrance to Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. World War II unit histories and officers, archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Churchills Lions, A Biographical Guide to the Key British Generals of World War II, Biographical entry for Cunningham on the Generals of World War II website

17.
Interwar period
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There were numerous new nations in Eastern Europe, most of them small in size. The United States gained dominance in world finance, by the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with the second half of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the Golden Twenties. The Roaring Twenties highlighted novel and highly social and cultural trends. These trends, made possible by sustained economic prosperity, were most visible in major cities like New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, the Jazz Age began and Art Deco peaked. For women, knee-length skirts and dresses became socially acceptable, as did bobbed hair with a marcel wave, the women who pioneered these trends were frequently referred to as flappers. Not all was new, “normalcy” returned to politics in the wake of hyper-emotional wartime passions in the United States, France, and Germany. The leftist revolutions in Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Spain were defeated by conservatives, but succeeded in Russia, in Italy the fascists came to power under Mussolini after threatening a march on Rome. Most independent countries enacted womens suffrage in the era, including Canada in 1917, Britain in 1918. There were a few countries that held out until after the Second World War. If women could work in factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. But the vote was more than simply a reward for war work. The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Greece did especially well, in advanced economies the prosperity reached middle class households and many in the working class. With radio, automobiles, telephones, and electric lighting and appliances, there was unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media began to focus on celebrities, especially sports heroes, major cities built large sports stadiums for the fans, in addition to palatial cinemas. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The depression originated in the United States, after a decline in lofty stock prices. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession

Interwar period
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Europe, 1923
Interwar period
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Population densities in Europe, 1923

18.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

19.
Israeli Declaration of Independence
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It declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, which would come into effect on termination of the British Mandate at midnight that day. The event is celebrated annually in Israel with a national holiday Yom Haatzmaut on 5 Iyar of every year according to the Hebrew calendar, the possibility of a Jewish homeland in Palestine had been a goal of Zionist organizations since the late 19th century. After World War I, the United Kingdom was given a mandate for Palestine, in the face of increasing violence after World War II, the British handed the issue over to the recently established United Nations. The result was Resolution 181, a plan to partition Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish States, the Jewish state was to receive around 56% of the land area of Mandate Palestine, encompassing 82% of the Jewish population, though it would be separated from Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by most of the Jewish population, the result was 33 to 13 in favour of the resolution, with 10 abstentions. Resolution 181, PART I, Future constitution and government of Palestine, TERMINATION OF MANDATE, PARTITION AND INDEPENDENCE, Clause 3 provides, Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. Shall come into existence in Palestine two months after the evacuation of the forces of the mandatory Power has been completed. The first draft of the declaration was made by Zvi Berenson, a revised second draft was made by three lawyers, A. Beham, A. Hintzheimer and Z. E. Baker, and was framed by a committee including David Remez, Pinchas Rosen, Haim-Moshe Shapira, Moshe Sharett, a second committee meeting, which included David Ben-Gurion, Yehuda Leib Maimon, Sharett and Zisling produced the final text. On 12 May 1948, the Minhelet HaAm was convened to vote on declaring independence, three of the thirteen members were missing, with Yehuda Leib Maimon and Yitzhak Gruenbaum being blocked in besieged Jerusalem, while Yitzhak-Meir Levin was in the United States. The meeting started at 1,45 in the afternoon and ended after midnight, the decision was between accepting the American proposal for a truce, or declaring independence. The latter option was put to a vote, with six of the ten members present supporting it, For, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Peretz Bernstein, Haim-Moshe Shapira, Mordechai Bentov, against, Eliezer Kaplan, David Remez, Pinchas Rosen, Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit. Chaim Weizmann, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and soon to be the first President of Israel, endorsed the decision, after reportedly asking What are they waiting for, the idiots. The draft text was submitted for approval to a meeting of Moetzet HaAm at the JNF building in Tel Aviv on 14 May. The meeting started at 13,50 and ended at 15,00, an hour before the declaration was due to be made, during the process, there were two major debates, centering on the issues of borders and religion. On the border issue, the draft had declared that the borders would be that decided by the UN partition plan. While this was supported by Rosen and Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, it was opposed by Ben-Gurion and Zisling, with Ben-Gurion stating, We accepted the UN Resolution and they are preparing to make war on us. If we defeat them and capture western Galilee or territory on both sides of the road to Jerusalem, these areas become part of the state

Israeli Declaration of Independence
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Declaration of Independence
Israeli Declaration of Independence
Israeli Declaration of Independence
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A celebratory crowd outside the Tel Aviv Museum to hear the Declaration
Israeli Declaration of Independence
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David Ben-Gurion declaring independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism

20.
Egyptian pound
–
The Egyptian pound is the currency of Egypt. It is divided into 100 piastres, or ersh, or 1,000 millimes, the Egyptian pound is frequently abbreviated as LE or L. E. which stands for livre égyptienne. E£ and £E are commonly used on the internet, the name Genēh is derived from the Guinea coin, which had almost the same value of 100 piastres at the end of the 19th century. In 1834, a Khedival Decree was issued providing for the issuing of an Egyptian currency based on a base, i. e. based on gold. The Egyptian pound, known as the geneih, was introduced, the piastre continued to circulate as 1⁄100 of a pound, with the piastre subdivided into 40 para. In 1885, the para ceased to be issued, and the piastre was divided into tenths and these tenths were renamed milliemes in 1916. The legal exchange rates were fixed by force of law for important foreign currencies which became acceptable in the settlement of internal transactions, eventually this led to Egypt using a de facto gold standard between 1885 and 1914, with E£1 =7.4375 grams pure gold. At the outbreak of World War I, the Egyptian pound was pegged to the British pound sterling at EG£0.975 per GB£1. Egypt remained part of the Sterling Area until 1962, when Egypt devalued slightly and switched to a peg to the United States dollar and this peg was changed to 1 pound =2.55555 dollars in 1973 when the dollar was devalued. The pound was devalued in 1978 to a peg of 1 pound =1.42857 dollars. However, until 2001, the float was tightly managed by the Central Bank of Egypt and foreign exchange controls were in effect. The Central Bank of Egypt voted to end the regime and allowed the pound to float freely on 3 November 2016. The Egyptian pound was used in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1899 and 1956, and Cyrenaica when it was under British occupation and later an independent emirate between 1942 and 1951. The National Bank of Egypt issued banknotes for the first time on 3 April 1899, the Central Bank of Egypt and the National Bank of Egypt were unified into the Central Bank of Egypt in 1961. Several unofficial popular names are used to refer to different values of Egyptian currency and these include nekla for 2 milliemes, tarifa for 5 milliemes, shelen for 5 piastres, bariza for 10 piastres, and reyal for 20 piastres. Since the piaster and millieme are no legal tender, the smallest denomination currently minted being the 50-piaster coin. A few have survived to refer to pounds, bariza now refers to a ten-pound note and reyal can be used in reference to a 20-pound note. Different sums of EGP have special nicknames, for example,1,000 EGP baku pack,1,000,000 EGP arnab rabbit,1,000,000,000 EGP feel elephant

21.
Palestine pound
–
It was divided into 1000 mils. The Palestine pound was also the currency of Transjordan until 1949, until 1918, Ottoman Levant was an integral part of the Ottoman Empire and therefore used its currency, the Ottoman lira. Following the institution of the British Mandate for Palestine, the Egyptian pound also circulated alongside the Ottoman lira until 1927 and this created an unsatisfactory situation which required a currency reform. The Palestine pound was introduced by the British, equal in value to the pound sterling and it was also adopted in Cyprus in 1955, where the Palestinian pound had briefly been introduced as legal tender, following a currency shortage in 1943. The Palestine pound was also declared a legal tender in the Transjordan Emirate, the body which governed the issue of the currency was the Palestine Currency Board, which was subject to the British Colonial Office. The Currency Board was dissolved in May 1948, as the British Mandate ended, in Israel, there was a transitional period of four years between the end of the British Mandate and the adoption of a fully independent currency system. Between 1948 and 1952, the Palestine pound continued to be a legal tender, in August 1948, new banknotes were issued by the Anglo Palestine Company, owned by the Jewish Agency and based in London. In Jordan, the Palestine pound was replaced by the Jordanian dinar in 1949, in 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank, and the Palestine pound continued to circulate there until 1950. The Jordanian dinar is still tender in the West Bank along with the Israeli shekel. In the Gaza Strip, the Palestine pound circulated until April 1951, today, Gaza Strip inhabitants mostly use the Israeli shekel. In the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was debarred from issuing its own currency, in practice, prices in the Palestinian territories are quoted in Israeli currency. There was a report that the Palestinian authorities were considering issuing new banknotes and this, however, never came to fruition. In 1927, coins were introduced in denominations of 1,2,5,10,20,50 and 100 mils. The 1 and 2 mils were struck in bronze, whilst the 5,10 and 20 mils were holed, cupro-nickel coins, except for during World War II, the 50 and 100 mils coins were struck in.720 silver. All the denominations were trilingual in Arabic, English and Hebrew, the Hebrew inscription includes the initials Alef Yud after Palestina, for Eretz Yisrael. The last coins were issued for circulation in 1946, with all 1947 dated coins being melted down, on 1 November 1927, banknotes were introduced by the Palestine Currency Board in denominations of 500 mils,1,5,10,50 and 100 pounds. Notes were issued with dates as late as 15 August 1945, the 100 pound note was equivalent to 40 months’ wages of a skilled worker in Palestine. Currently six of them are unaccounted for and four are known to exist in the hand of collectors

22.
Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
–
The administration ended following the assignment of the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon and British Mandate for Palestine at the 19–26 April 1920 San Remo conference. Following British and French occupation, the region was split into three administrative sub-units, which varied little from the previous Ottoman divisions. But, success of Turkish War of Independence, Maraş, Antep, also, Antakya and İskenderun kazas of Halep Sanjak in one were separated as the Republic of Hatay in 1938. The republic joined to Turkey in 1939, when the British forces occupied Ethiopia, Libya and other Italian colonies during World War II, the OETA was revived as the administrative structure by which the British governed these territories. In Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie was allowed to return and claim his throne, the area of formerly Ottoman territory now under occupation also required management, and with the approval of the Government, Allenby appointed a Chief Administrator for Palestine. He divided the country into four districts, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Majdal and Beersheba, Allenby insisted that while military administration was required it was to remain his responsibility. Major General Arthur Wigram Money Major General H. D, watson Lieutenant-General Louis Bols OETA East Rida al-Rikabi

Occupied Enemy Territory Administration
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Area of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in Syria and Palestine

23.
All-Palestine Government
–
The All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War to govern the Egyptian-controlled enclave in Gaza. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan, though jurisdiction of the Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip. The Prime Minister of the Gaza-seated administration was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, shortly thereafter the Jericho Conference named King Abdullah I of Transjordan King of Arab Palestine. The Congress called for the union of Arab Palestine and Transjordan, the other Arab League member states opposed Abdullahs plan. The All-Palestine Government is regarded by some as the first attempt to establish an independent Palestinian state and it was under official Egyptian protection, but it had no executive role. The government had political and symbolic implications. Its importance gradually declined, especially after the relocation of its seat of government from Gaza to Cairo following the Israeli invasion in late 1948, though the Gaza Strip remained under Egyptian control through the war the All-Palestine Government remained in exile in Cairo, managing Gazan affairs from outside. Egypt, however, both formally and informally renounced any and all claims to Palestinian territory. At the end of World War I, Great Britain occupied the Ottoman territory of Palestine, the boundaries of the occupied land were not well defined. Britain and France, the main Allied Powers with a long-term interest in the area, Britain sought to legitimize the occupation by obtaining the British Mandate of Palestine from the League of Nations. In the mandated territory, Britain set up two separate administrations - Palestine and Transjordan - with the objective that they would in the course of time become fully independent. There was opposition from the Arab population of Palestine to the set out in the mandate. Various attempts were made to reconcile the Arab community with the growing Jewish population without success, the United Nations proposed the Partition Plan of 1947 which proposed that the Gaza area would become part of a new Arab Palestinian state. The Arab states rejected the United Nations plan, which heralded the start of the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, some countries continued to dispute its independent status. Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the Mandate, on 15 May 1948, the Egyptian army invaded the territory of the former British Mandate from the south, starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. An Egyptian Ministerial order dated 1 June 1948 declared that all laws in force during the Mandate would continue to be in force in the Gaza Strip. On 8 July 1948, the Arab League decided to set up a civil administration in Palestine. This plan was opposed by King Abdullah I of Transjordan and received only half-hearted support from the Arab Higher Committee

24.
State of Palestine
–
The State of Palestine claims the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the designated capital. Most of the areas claimed by the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and its independence was declared on 15 November 1988 by the Palestine Liberation Organization in Algiers as a government-in-exile. Since the British Mandate, the term Palestine has been associated with the area that currently covers the State of Israel, the West Bank. In 1947, the UN adopted a plan for a two-state solution in the remaining territory of the mandate. The plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership but rejected by the Arab leaders, on the eve of final British withdrawal, the Jewish Agency for Israel declared the establishment of the State of Israel according to the proposed UN plan. During the war, Israel gained additional territories that were designated to be part of the Arab state under the UN plan, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip and Transjordan occupied the West Bank. Egypt initially supported the creation of an All-Palestine Government, but disbanded it in 1959, Transjordan never recognized it and instead decided to incorporate the West Bank with its own territory to form Jordan. The annexation was ratified in 1950 but was rejected by the international community, the Six-Day War in 1967, when Egypt, Jordan, and Syria fought against Israel, ended with Israel being in occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, besides other territories. In 1964, when the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, the Palestinian National Charter of the PLO defines the boundaries of Palestine as the whole remaining territory of the mandate, including Israel. Following the Six-Day War, the PLO moved to Jordan, the October 1974 Arab League summit designated the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and reaffirmed their right to establish an independent state of urgency. In November 1974, the PLO was recognized as competent on all matters concerning the question of Palestine by the UN General Assembly granting them observer status as an entity at the UN. In spite of this decision, the PLO did not participate at the UN in its capacity of the State of Palestines government, in 1979, through the Camp David Accords, Egypt signaled an end to any claim of its own over the Gaza Strip. In July 1988, Jordan ceded its claims to the West Bank—with the exception of guardianship over Haram al-Sharif—to the PLO, in November 1988, the PLO legislature, while in exile, declared the establishment of the State of Palestine. In the month following, it was recognised by many states, including Egypt. In the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, the State of Palestine is described as being established on the Palestinian territory, the UN membership application submitted by the State of Palestine also specified that it is based on the 1967 borders. During the negotiations of the Oslo Accords, the PLO recognised Israels right to exist, after Israel took control of the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza Strip from Egypt, it began to establish Israeli settlements there. These were organised into Judea and Samaria district and Hof Aza Regional Council in the Southern District, in 1980, Israel decided to freeze elections for these councils and to establish instead Village Leagues, whose officials were under Israeli influence. Later this model became ineffective for both Israel and the Palestinians, and the Village Leagues began to break up, with the last being the Hebron League, dissolved in February 1988

25.
Governance of the Gaza Strip
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The governance of the Gaza Strip is carried out by the Hamas administration, led by Ismail Haniyeh, from 2007, until 2014 and again from 2016. The Hamas administration is referred to as the Hamas government in Gaza. After the takeover in Gaza by Hamas on 14 June 2007, Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government, both administrations – the Fatah government in Ramallah and the Hamas government in Gaza– regard themselves as the sole legitimate government of the Palestinian National Authority. The international community and Palestine Liberation Organization, however, recognize the Ramallah administration as the legitimate government, since the division between the two parties, there have been conflicts between Hamas and similar factions operating in Gaza, and with Israel, most notably the Gaza War of 2008-2009. Despite the peace plan, Palestinian sources were quoted in January 2012 as saying that the May joint elections would not be possible, a unity government was sworn on 2 June 2014. Conflict between Fatah and Hamas began simmering when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, major conflict erupted in Gaza in December 2006, when the Hamas executive authority attempted to replace the Palestinian police as the primary authority in Gaza. On 8 February 2007 Saudi-sponsored negotiations in Mecca produced an agreement on a Palestinian national unity government, the agreement was signed by Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of Fatah and Khaled Mashal on behalf of Hamas. In March 2007, the Palestinian Legislative Council established a national unity government, with 83 representatives voting in favor, Government ministers were sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas, the president on the Palestinian National Authority, at ceremonies held in Gaza and Ramallah. In June that year, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip from the unity government after forcing out Fatah. On 14 June 2007, Mahmoud Abbas announced the dissolution of the unity government. He dismissed Ismail Haniya as prime minister and appointed Salam Fayyad in his place, Palestinian police chief Kamal el-Sheikh ordered his men in the Gaza Strip not to work or obey Hamas orders. Many Fatah members fled the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian National Authority officially has no control in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and Fatah accused each other of a coup détat, neither recognizes the authority of the other government, the United States, EU, and Israel have not recognized the Hamas government, but support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyads government in the West Bank. Although the US does not officially recognize the Hamas government, it holds it fully and entirely responsible for the Gaza Strip, in 2009, a radical Salafist cleric declared an Islamic Emirate in Gaza, accusing Hamas of failing to implement full Sharia law. Reports in March 2010 suggested that Ahmed Jabari described the security situation in Gaza as deteriorating, nevertheless, the Hamas continued to execute its authority. In April 2011, Hamas conducted another crackdown, this one on a Salafist group reportedly involved in Vittorio Arrigonis murder, Hamas praised the Arab Spring, but its offices in Damascus were directly affected by the Syrian Civil War. The Hamas leader Khaled Mashal eventually relocated to Jordan, and Hamas began to distance itself from the Syrian government in the backdrop of the Syrian civil war, essentially, the Doha deal does not reflect any real reconciliation among the factions of the Hamas Government. On July 2012, reports circulated that the Hamas Government in Gaza Strip was considering declaring the independence of the Gaza Strip with the help of Egypt

26.
History of Israel
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The History of Israel encompasses the Jewish history in the Land of Israel, as well as the history of the modern State of Israel. Modern Israel and the West Bank are roughly located on the site of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and it is the birthplace of the Hebrew language and of the Abrahamic religions, and contains sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Samaritanism, Druze and Baháí Faith. Although coming under the sway of various empires and home to a variety of ethnicities, the area became increasingly Christian after the 3rd century and then largely Muslim following the 7th century conquest and until the middle of the 20th century. A Jewish national movement, Zionism, emerged in the late-19th century, Israeli independence in 1948 was marked by massive migration of Jews from both Europe and the Muslim countries to Israel, and of Arabs from Israel, followed by the extensive Arab–Israeli conflict. About 43% of the worlds Jews live in Israel today, the largest Jewish community in the world, since about 1970, the United States has become the principal ally of Israel. In 1979 an uneasy Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed, based on the Camp David Accords, in 1993, Israel signed Oslo I Accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization, followed by establishment of the Palestinian National Authority and in 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty was signed. Despite efforts to finalize the agreement, the conflict continues to play a major role in Israeli and international political, social. The economy of Israel was initially primarily socialist and the country dominated by social democratic parties until the 1970s, since then the Israeli economy has gradually moved to capitalism and a free market economy, partially retaining the social welfare system. Between 2.6 and 0.9 million years ago, at least four episodes of dispersal from Africa to the Levant are known. The oldest evidence of humans in the territory of modern Israel. The flint tool artifacts have been discovered at Yiron, the oldest stone tools found anywhere outside Africa, other groups include 1.4 million years old Acheulean industry, the Bizat Ruhama group and Gesher Bnot Yaakov. Other notable Paleolithic sites include caves Qesem and Manot, the oldest fossils of anatomically modern humans found outside Africa are the Skhul and Qafzeh hominids, who lived in northern Israel 120,000 years ago. Around 10th millennium BCE, the Natufian culture existed in the area, during the 2nd millennium BCE, Canaan, part of which later became known as Israel, was dominated by the New Kingdom of Egypt from c.1550 to c. The first record of the name Israel occurs in the Merneptah stele, erected for Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah c.1209 BCE, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not. William G. Dever sees this Israel in the highlands as a cultural and probably political entity. Ancestors of the Israelites may have included Semites native to Canaan, the first use of grapheme-based writing originated in the area, probably among Canaanite peoples resident in Egypt. All modern alphabetical writing systems are descended from this writing, written evidence of the use of Classical Hebrew exists from about 1000 BCE. It was written using the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, villages had populations of up to 300 or 400, which lived by farming and herding, and were largely self-sufficient, economic interchange was prevalent

History of Israel
History of Israel
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The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.
History of Israel
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Obverse of Yehud silver coin

27.
History of ancient Israel and Judah
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Israel and Judah were related Iron Age kingdoms of the ancient Levant. The Kingdom of Israel emerged as an important local power by the 10th century BCE before falling to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE and this, the last nominally independent Judean kingdom, came to an end in 63 BCE with its conquest by Pompey of Rome. East of the plain and the Shephelah is a ridge, the hill country of Judah in the south, the hill country of Ephraim north of that, then Galilee. To the east again lie the valley occupied by the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and the wadi of the Arabah. Beyond the plateau is the Syrian desert, separating the Levant from Mesopotamia, to the southwest is Egypt, to the northeast Mesopotamia. The location and geographical characteristics of the narrow Levant made the area a battleground among the entities that surrounded it. Politically and culturally it was dominated by Egypt, each city under its own ruler, constantly at odds with its neighbours, and appealing to the Egyptians to adjudicate their differences. The Canaanite city-state system broke down at the end of the Late Bronze period, the name Israel first appears in the stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah c.1209 BCE, Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more. In the Late Bronze Age there were no more than about 25 villages in the highlands, the villages were more numerous and larger in the north, and probably shared the highlands with pastoral nomads, who left no remains. Other Aramaean sites also demonstrate a contemporary absence of pig remains at that time, unlike earlier Canaanite, in The Bible Unearthed, Finkelstein and Silberman summarised recent studies. They described how, up until 1967, the Israelite heartland in the highlands of western Palestine was virtually an archaeological terra incognita, since then, intensive surveys have examined the traditional territories of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. These surveys have revealed the emergence of a new culture contrasting with the Philistine. This new culture is characterised by a lack of remains, by an abandonment of the Philistine/Canaanite custom of having highly decorated pottery. The Israelite ethnic identity had originated, not from the Exodus and a subsequent conquest and these surveys revolutionized the study of early Israel. There was no sign of violent invasion or even the infiltration of a clearly defined ethnic group, instead, it seemed to be a revolution in lifestyle. From then on, over a period of hundreds of years until after the return of the exiles from Babylon, after the period of Ezra there is no more biblical record of them. The Hebrew language, a dialect of Canaanite, became the language of the hill country, modern scholars therefore see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan. Unusually favourable climatic conditions in the first two centuries of Iron Age II brought about an expansion of population, settlements and trade throughout the region

History of ancient Israel and Judah
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The Iron Age kingdom of Israel (blue) and kingdom of Judah (yellow), with their neighbors (tan) (8th century BCE)
History of ancient Israel and Judah
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The Canaanite god Ba'al, 14th–12th century BCE (Louvre museum, Paris)
History of ancient Israel and Judah
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The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

28.
Prehistory of the Levant
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The prehistory of the Levant includes the various cultural changes that occurred, as revealed by archaeological evidence, prior to recorded traditions in the area of the Levant. Not only have many cultures and traditions of humans lived here, in addition, this region is one of the centers for the development of agriculture. The lithic assemblages relate to the Early Acheulian culture, later Acheulian sites include Gesher Benot Yaakov, Tabun Cave and others dated to the time span of ca. This layer contains the worlds first signs of domesticated dogs and controlled usage of fire, the Middle Palaeolithic period is represented in the Levant by the Mousterian culture, known from numerous sites through the region. The chronological subdivision of the Mousterian is based on the sequence of the Tabun Cave. Middle Paleolithic human remains include both the Neanderthals, and anatomically modern humans from Jebel Qafzeh and Skhul Cave, the Upper Palaeolithic period is dated in the Levant to ca. Epi-Palaeolithic period is characterized by significant cultural variability and wide spread of the microlithic technologies, beginning with the appearance of the Kebaran culture a microlithic toolkit was associated with the appearance of the bow and arrow into the area. Kebaran affiliated cultures spread as far as Southern Turkey, the latest part of the period is the time of flourishing of the Natufian culture and development of sedentism among the hunter-gatherers. This Culture existed from about 13,000 to 9,800 BCE in the Levant, a lot of archaeological excavations of this culture creates a relatively well defined understanding of these people. One of the most significant aspects of this Culture was their large community sizes, the Neolithic period is traditionally divided to the Pre-Pottery and Pottery phases. PPNA developed from the earlier Natufian cultures of the area, in addition, the Levant in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic was involved in large scale, far reaching trade. This is indicative of a large trade circle reaching as far as the Northern Fertile Crescent at Nemrut Dağ. The Ghassulian period created the basis of the Mediterranean economy which has characterised the area ever since, geographically the area is divided between a coastal plain, hill country to the East and the Jordan Valley joining the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Rainfall decreases from the north to the south, with the result that the region of Israel has generally been more economically developed than the southern one of Judah. A Hill Route, travelling through the Negev, Kadesh Barnea, to Hebron and Jerusalem, and thence north to Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh, Beth Shean and Hazor, and thence to Kadesh and Damascus. The Kings Highway, travelling north from Eilat, east of the Jordan through Amman to Damascus, the area seems to have suffered from acute periods of desiccation, and reduced rainfall which has influenced the relative importance of settled versus nomadic ways of living. Eventually they revert to fully nomadic cultures, which, when rainfall increases settle around important sources of water, the increased prosperity leads to a revival of inter-regional and eventually international trade. Warfare leads to opening the region to pandemics, with resultant depopulation, overuse of fragile soils, the urban development of Canaan lagged considerably behind that of Egypt and Mesopotamia and even that of Syria, where from 3,500 BCE a sizable city developed at Hamoukar

Prehistory of the Levant
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Map of the Levant

29.
Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען‎, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan

Canaan
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A 1692 depiction of Canaan, by Philip Lea
Canaan
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Map of the Near East by Robert de Vaugondy (1762), indicating Canaan as limited to the Holy Land, to the exclusion of Lebanon and Syria
Canaan
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Map of Canaan, with the border defined by Numbers 34:1–12 shown in red.
Canaan
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Amarna tablet EA 9

30.
Israelites
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The Israelites were a Semitic-speaking people of the ancient Near East, who inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. The ancient Israelites are considered to be an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanite populations that inhabited the Southern Levant, Syria, ancient Israel. In the period of the monarchy it was only used to refer to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. The Israelites were also known as the Hebrews and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Jews are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah, particularly the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi. The word Jews is found in 2 Kings, Chronicles, and in passages in the Book of Jeremiah, the Book of Zechariah. The Kingdom of Israel, often called the Northern Kingdom of Israel, contained all the tribes except for the tribes of Judah, following its conquest by Assyria, these ten tribes were allegedly dispersed and lost to history, and they are henceforth known as the Ten Lost Tribes. Jewish tradition holds that Samaria was so named because the mountainous terrain was used to keep Guard for incoming enemy attacks. According to Samaritan tradition, however, the Samaritan ethnonym is not derived from the region of Samaria, thus, according to Samaritan tradition, the region was named Samaria after them, not vice versa. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, while in Samaritan Hebrew they call themselves Shamerim, in Judaism, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי, meaning Jew, is rarely used, Samaritans commonly refer to themselves and to Jews collectively as Israelites, and they describe themselves as the Israelite Samaritans. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32,29, the Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra to prevail over or to struggle/wrestle with, and el, God, the divine. The name Israel first appears in non-biblical sources c.1209 BCE, the inscription is very brief and says simply, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not. The inscription refers to a people, not to an individual or a nation-state, in modern Hebrew, bnei yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history, it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna the term Yisrael acquired a narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites. In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, the term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor. It is used synonymously with Israelites, or as a term for historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general. Today, Jews and Samaritans both recognize each other as communities with an authentic Israelite origin, the terms Jews and Samaritans largely replaced the title Children of Israel as the commonly used ethnonym for each respective community. The name Yahweh, the god of the later Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of Mount Seir in Edom, the Canaanites were also the first people, as far as is known, to have used an alphabet

Israelites
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Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel, from a synagogue wall in Jerusalem
Israelites
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The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.
Israelites
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Landscape of Samaria in the territory of Ephraim

31.
Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
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The United Monarchy is the name given to the Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. This is traditionally dated between 1050 and 930 BCE, modern historians are divided on the historicity of the United Monarchy as described in the Bible. There is no evidence of a united Kingdom of Judah. According to standard source criticism, a number of source texts were spliced together to produce the current books of Samuel. The most prominent in the parts of the first book are the pro-monarchical source. In identifying these two sources, two separate accounts can be reconstructed, the anti-monarchical source describes Samuel to have thoroughly routed the Philistines, yet begrudgingly accepting that the people demanded a ruler, and thus appointing Saul by cleromancy. Textual critics also point to disparities in the account of Davids rise to power as indicative of separate threads being merged later to create an age of a united monarchy. David is thought by scholars to have been a ruler in Judah while Israel, comparatively immense, modern archaeology also supports this view. Most scholars believe the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been a contemporary account, for example, there is mention of later armor, use of camels, cavalry, and iron picks and axes. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelite tribes previously lived as a confederation under ad hoc charismatic leaders called Judges. Abimelech was the first to be declared king by the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and reigned over Israel for three years before he was killed during the Battle of Thebez. The Bible treats the notion of kingship as having been an anathema at the time, it being seen as one man put in a position of reverence and power, which in their faith was reserved for God. According to the Second Book of Samuel, due to his disobedience to God, Sauls reign was curtailed, the Masoretic Text says that Saul ruled for only two years. The Bible portrays Saul as having died in battle against the Philistines, Sauls heir, Ishbaal, took over rulership of Israel but, according to Samuel, ruled for only two years before he was assassinated. David, who had become king of Judah only, ended the conspiracy, a number of textual critics and biblical scholars have suggested that David was actually responsible for the assassination, and Davids innocence was a later invention to legitimize his actions. Israel rebels, according to Samuel, and appoints Davids son Absalom as their new king, the Bible then describes Israel as taking over Judah and ultimately forcing David into exile east of the Jordan. This section of the text, and the bulk of the remainder of the Books of Samuel, is thought by textual critics to belong to a single large source known as the Court History of David. Israel and Judah are portrayed in this source as quite distinct kingdoms, eventually, according to the Book of Samuel, David launches a counter-attack, and wins, although with the loss of Absalom

Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)

32.
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel was one of two successor states to the former United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Historians often refer to the Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom or as the Kingdom of Samaria to differentiate it from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Kingdom of Israel existed roughly from 930 BCE until 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The major cities of the kingdom were Shechem, Tirzah, in the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel has been referred to as the House of Joseph. It is also referenced as Ephraim, the tribe whose territory housed the capital cities. It has also referred to as Israel in Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible, the territory of the Kingdom of Israel comprised the territories of the tribes of Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and its capital was Samaria according to the Book of Isaiah. The United Kingdom of Israel and Judah is said to have existed from about 1030 to about 930 BCE and it was a union of all the twelve Israelite tribes living in the area that presently approximates modern Israel and the Palestinian territories. After the death of Solomon in about 931 BCE, all the Israelite tribes except for Judah and Benjamin refused to accept Rehoboam, the rebellion against Rehoboam arose after he refused to lighten the burden of taxation and services that his father had imposed on his subjects. Jeroboam, who was not of the Davidic line, was sent for from Egypt by the malcontents, the Tribe of Ephraim and all Israel raised the old cry, Every man to his tents, O Israel. Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem, and in 930 BCE, Jeroboam was proclaimed king over all Israel at Shechem, after the revolt at Shechem at first only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. But very soon after the tribe of Benjamin joined Judah, the northern kingdom continued to be called the Kingdom of Israel or Israel, while the southern kingdom was called the kingdom of Judah. 2 Chronicles 15,9 also says that members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, both Eusebius and Josephus place the division in 997 BCE – lunar dates of Venus can be mistaken as 64 years later. Shechem was the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel, King Omri built his capital in Samaria, which continued as such until the destruction of the Kingdom by the Assyrians. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the kingdom of the ten tribes came to an end, for the first sixty years, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over the northern kingdom, and there was perpetual war between them. For the following eighty years, there was no war between them, and, for the most part, they were in friendly alliance, co-operating against their common enemies. The conflict between Israel and Judah was resolved when Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, allied himself with the house of Ahab through marriage, later, Jehosophats son and successor, Jehoram of Judah, married Ahabs daughter Athaliah, cementing the alliance. However, the sons of Ahab were slaughtered by Jehu following his coup détat around 840 BCE, in c.732 BCE, Pekah of Israel, while allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem. Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, people from these tribes including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system

Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
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Map of the region in the 9th century BC

33.
Kingdom of Judah
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The Kingdom of Judah was an Iron Age kingdom of the Southern Levant. The Hebrew Bible depicts it as the successor to a United Monarchy, in the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated, limited to small rural settlements, most of them unfortified. Significant academic debate exists around the character of the Kingdom of Judah, archaeologists of the minimalist school doubt the extent of the Kingdom of Judah as depicted in the Bible. Around 1990–2010, an important group of archaeologists and biblical scholars formed the view that the actual Kingdom of Judah bore little resemblance to the portrait of a powerful monarchy. These scholars say the kingdom was no more than a tribal entity. Other archaeologists say that the identification of Khirbet Qeiyafa as an Israelite settlement is uncertain, the status of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE is a major subject of debate. The oldest part of Jerusalem and its urban core is the City of David. However, unique structures such as the Stepped Stone Structure and the Large Stone Structure. According to the Hebrew Bible, the kingdom of Judah resulted from the break-up of the United kingdom of Israel after the tribes refused to accept Rehoboam. At first, only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David, the two kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, coexisted uneasily after the split until the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by Assyria in c. 722/721. The major theme of the Hebrew Bibles narrative is the loyalty of Judah, and especially its kings, to Yahweh, which it states is the God of Israel. Accordingly, all the kings of Israel and almost all the kings of Judah were bad, which in terms of Biblical narrative means that they failed to enforce monotheism. Of the good kings, Hezekiah is noted for his efforts at stamping out idolatry, for the first sixty years, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over the northern kingdom, and there was perpetual war between them. Israel and Judah were in a state of war throughout Rehoboams seventeen-year reign, Rehoboam built elaborate defenses and strongholds, along with fortified cities. In the fifth year of Rehoboams reign, Shishak, pharaoh of Egypt, brought a huge army, in the sack of Jerusalem, Rehoboam gave them all of the treasures out of the temple as a tribute and Judah became a vassal state of Egypt. Rehoboams son and successor, Abijah of Judah continued his fathers efforts to bring Israel under his control and he fought the Battle of Mount Zemaraim against Jeroboam of Israel and was victorious with a heavy loss of life on the Israel side. The Bible does not state whether Zerah was a pharaoh or a general of the army, the Ethiopians were pursued all the way to Gerar, in the coastal plain, where they stopped out of sheer exhaustion. The resulting peace kept Judah free from Egyptian incursions until the time of Josiah some centuries later, in his 36th year, Asa was confronted by Baasha of Israel, who built a fortress at Ramah on the border, less than ten miles from Jerusalem

Kingdom of Judah
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Mesha Stele c. 850 BCE – An inscribed stone set up c. 840 BCE by Mesha of Moab tells how Chemosh, the God of Moab, had been angry with his people and allowed them to be subjugated to Israel, but at length assisted Mesha to throw off the yoke of Israel and restore the lands of Moab.
Kingdom of Judah
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Map of the region in the 9th century BCE
Kingdom of Judah
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Stamped bulla of a servant of King Hezekiah used to seal a papyrus document

34.
Second Temple period
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The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. The sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots were formed during this period, the Second Temple period ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. After the death of the last Jewish Prophets of antiquity and still under Persian rule and they flourished first under the Persians, then under the Greeks, then under an independent Hasmonean Kingdom, and then under the Romans. During this period, Second Temple Judaism can be seen as shaped by three major crises and their results, as groups of Jews reacted to them differently. First came the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah in 587/6 BCE, the absence of recognized prophets later in the period left them without their version of divine guidance at a time when they felt most in need of support and direction. The second crisis was the influence of Hellenism in Judaism. The third crisis was the Roman occupation of the region, beginning with Pompey, construction of the Second Temple was completed under the leadership of the last three Jewish Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi with Persian approval and financing. A wide interest was felt in this movement, although it was regarded with mingled feelings by the spectators. The Samaritans, the inhabitants of the capital of what had been Israel, zerubbabel and the elders, however, declined all such cooperation, feeling that the Jews must build the Temple without help. Immediately evil reports were spread regarding the Jews, according to Ezra 4,5, the Samaritans sought to frustrate their purpose and sent messengers to Ecbatana and Susa, with the result that the work was suspended. Seven years later, Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, died, and was succeeded by his son Cambyses. On his death, the false Smerdis, an imposter, occupied the throne for some seven or eight months and it was ready for consecration in the spring of 516 BCE, more than twenty years after the return from captivity. The Book of Haggai includes a prediction that the glory of the temple would be greater than that of the first. In 332 BCE the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great, after his demise, and the division of Alexanders empire among his generals, the Seleucid Kingdom was formed. An important advocate of the symbiosis of Jewish theology and Hellenistic thought is Philo, a deterioration of relations between hellenized Jews and religious Jews led the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes to impose decrees banning certain Jewish religious rites and traditions. Consequently, the orthodox Jews revolted under the leadership of the Hasmonean family and this revolt eventually led to the formation of an independent Judean kingdom, under the Hasmonaean Dynasty, which lasted from 165 to 37 BCE. The Hasmonean Dynasty eventually disintegrated as a result of war between the sons of Salome Alexandra - Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. The people, who did not want to be governed by a king but by theocratic clergy, a Roman intervention in the civil war in Judea was then made, following Syrian campaign of conquest and annexation, led by Pompey

35.
Yehud Medinata
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The area of Yehud Medinata corresponded to the previous Babylonian province with the same name, formed after the fall of the kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Yehud Medinata continued to exist for two centuries, until being incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the conquests of Alexander the Great. There is not complete agreement on the chronology of the Babylonian and Persian periods, the table is used in this article. The probable date for his mission is 458 BCE, but it is possible that it took place in 397 BCE, the revolt failed, and in 597 BCE, many Judahites, including the prophet Ezekiel, were exiled to Babylon. A few years later, Judah revolted yet again, in 589 Nebuchadnezzar again besieged Jerusalem, and many Jews fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries to seek refuge. The city fell after an 18-month siege and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged and destroyed Jerusalem, the former kingdom of Judah then became a Babylonian province Yehud, with Gedaliah, a native Judahite, as governor. According to Miller and Hayes, the province included the towns of Bethel in the north, Mizpah, Jericho in the east, Jerusalem, Beth-Zur in the west, the administrative centre of the province was Mizpah. On hearing of the appointment, the Jews that had taken refuge in surrounding countries returned to Judah, however, before long, Gedaliah was assassinated by a member of the former royal house, and the Babylonian garrison was killed, triggering a mass movement of refugees to Egypt. In Egypt, the refugees settled in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and Pathros, the numbers deported to Babylon or who made their way to Egypt and the remnant that remained in Yehud province and in surrounding countries are subject to academic debate. The Book of Jeremiah reports that a total of 4600 were exiled to Babylon, the Book of Kings also suggests that it was 8000. Israel Finkelstein, a prominent archaeologist, suggests that the 4600 represented the heads of households and 8000 was the total, Jeremiah also hints that an equivalent number may have fled to Egypt. Given such figures, Finkelstein suggests that three fourths of the Judahite population had remained in Judah, in 539 BCE, Babylon fell to the Persians. That event is dated securely from non-biblical sources, in his first year, Cyrus the Great decreed that the deportees in Babylon could return to Yehud and rebuild the Temple. Led by Zerubbabel,42,360 exiles returned to Yehud, according to Book of Ezra, Jeshua and Zerubbabel were frustrated in their efforts to rebuild the Temple by the enmity of the people of the land and the opposition of the governor of Beyond-the-River. The Book of Ezra dates Ezras arrival in Jerusalem to the year of Artaxerxes. Its position in the narrative implies that he was Artaxerxes I in which case the year was 458 BCE, Ezra, a scholar of the commandments of Yahweh, was commissioned by Artaxerxes to rebuild the Temple and enforce the laws of Moses in Beyond-the-River. Ezra led a party of exiles back to Yehud, where he found that Jews had intermarried with the peoples of the land. He succeeded in doing so but encountered resistance from the people of the land

Yehud Medinata
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Coat of arms
Yehud Medinata
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Yehud Medinata (in pink) under the Persian Empire
Yehud Medinata
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Coins bearing the inscription YHD, or Yehud. The coin at top shows the god YHWH, the coin at bottom right has an image of the owl of Athena (Athenian coinage was the standard for Mediterranean trade).

36.
Coele-Syria
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Coele-Syria, Coele Syria, Coelesyria, also rendered as Coelosyria and Celesyria, otherwise Hollow Syria, was a region of Syria in classical antiquity. It probably derived from the Aramaic for all of the region of Syria, the area now forms part of the modern nations of Lebanon, Syria and Israel. It is widely accepted that the term Coele is a transcription of Aramaic kul, meaning all, the first and only official use of the term was during the period of Seleucid rule of the region, between c.200 BCE and 64 BCE. This usage was adopted by Strabo and the Books of the Maccabees, however, Greek writers such as Agatharchides and Polemon of Athens used the term Palestine to refer to the region during this period, which was a term originally given circa 450 BCE by Herodotus. Later during the Roman Period c.350 CE, Eunapius wrote that the capital of Coele-Syria was the Seleucid city of Antioch, north of the Eleutherus. According to Polybius, a officer of the Ptolemaic Empire named Ptolemy Thrasea, having fought in the 217 BCE Battle of Raphia. Antiochus gave him the title Strategos and Archiereus of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, some scholars speculate that this title may have been used previously by the Ptolemies, but no direct evidence exists to support this. The region was disputed between the Seleucid dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty during the Syrian Wars, alexander the Greats general Ptolemy first occupied Coele-Syria in 318 BC. However, when Ptolemy joined the coalition against Antigonus I Monophthalmus in 313 BC, in 312 BC Seleucus I Nicator, defeated Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, in the Battle of Gaza which again allowed Ptolemy to occupy Coele-Syria. In 302 BC, Ptolemy joined a new coalition against Antigonus and reoccupied Coele-Syria and he was only to return when Antigonus had been defeated at Ipsus in 301 BC. Coele-Syria was assigned to Seleucus, by the victors of Ipsus, the later Seleucids were not to be so understanding, resulting in the century of Syrian Wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids. The Battle of Panium in 200 BC, during the Fifth Syrian War, was the decisive battle between the two sides in ending Ptolemaic control over the region. The 171–168 BC conflicts over Coele-Syria, between Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Ptolemy VI Philometor, are discussed in Livy’s The History of Rome from its Foundation, Seleucid control over the area of Judea began diminishing with the eruption of the Maccabean Revolt in 165 BC. With Seleucid troops being involved in warfare on the Parthian front, despite attempts of Seleucid rulers to regain territories, the conquests of Pompey in 64 BC were a decisive blow to them, and Syria became part of the Roman Republic. Under the Macedonian kings, Upper Syria was divided into four parts which were named after their capitals, later in the Roman Pompeian era, the province was divided into nine districts. Yet, it was often comprehended as the country as far as Egypt. Circa 323 BCE Laomedon of Mytilene takes control of Coele-Syria, circa 323 BCE The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax lists several cities on the Palestinian coast that are incorporated into Coele-Syria. In the Wars of the Diadochi, Coele-Syria came under the control of Antigonus I Monophthalmus, then in 301 BCE, Ptolemy I Soter exploited events surrounding the Battle of Ipsus to take control of the region

37.
Hasmonean dynasty
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The Hasmonean dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the Seleucids in the region of Judea, some modern scholars refer to this period as an independent kingdom of Israel. In 63 BCE, the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Republic, broken up, the dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE. Even then, Herod the Great tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess, Mariamne, the dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after his brother Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt. However, the power vacuum that enabled the Jewish state to be recognized by the Roman Senate c. 139 BCE was later exploited by the Romans themselves. Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, Simons great-grandsons, became pawns in a war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. The deaths of Pompey and Caesar, and the related Roman civil wars temporarily relaxed Romes grip on Israel and this short independence was rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Octavian. The installation of Herod the Great as king in 37 BCE made Israel a Roman client state, in AD6, Rome joined Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea into the Roman province of Iudaea. In AD44, Rome installed the rule of a Roman procurator side by side with the rule of the Herodian kings, an alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmonai is linked with the village of Heshbon, mentioned in Joshua 15,27. Gott and Licht attribute the name to Ha Simeon, a reference to the Simeonite Tribe. Between 319 and 302 BC. Under Antiochus III the Seleucids wrested control of Israel from the Ptolemies for the final time and it was in Antioch that the Jews first made the acquaintance of Hellenism and of the more corrupt sides of Greek culture, and it was from Antioch that Judea henceforth was ruled. The books are considered part of the Biblical canon by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and apocryphal by most Protestants, the books include historical and religious material from the Septuagint that was codified by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. The other primary source for the Hasmonean dynasty is the first book of The Wars of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, Josephus account is the only primary source covering the history of the Hasmonean dynasty during the period of its expansion and independence between 110 to 63 BCE. The books of Maccabees use the names Judea and Israel as geographical descriptors throughout for both the land and people over whom the Hasmoneans would rule, the Talmud includes one of the Hasmonean kings under the description Kings of Israel. Scholars refer to the state as the Hasmonean Kingdom to distinguish it from the kingdoms of Israel. The Hellenization of the Jews in the period was not universally resisted. Generally, the Jews accepted foreign rule when they were required to pay tribute. Nevertheless, Jews were divided between those favoring Hellenization and those opposing it, and were divided over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids, when the High Priest Simon II died in 175 BCE, conflict broke out between supporters of his son Onias III and his son Jason

38.
Herodian dynasty
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The Herodian Dynasty was a Judean dynasty of Idumaean/Edomite descent. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great, who assumed the throne of Judea, with Roman support and his kingdom lasted until his death in 4 BCE, when it was divided between his sons as a Tetrarchy, which lasted for about 10 years. During the time of the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus, Judea conquered Edom, the Edomites were gradually integrated into the Judean nation, and some of them reached high-ranking positions. In the days of Alexander Jannaeus, Edomite Antipas, was appointed governor of Edom, julius Caesar appointed Antipater to be procurator of Judea in 47 BCE and he appointed his sons Phasael and Herod to be governors of Jerusalem and Galilee respectively. Antipater was murdered in 43 BCE, however, his sons managed to hold the reins of power and were elevated to the rank of tetrarchs in 41 BCE by Mark Anthony. In 40 BCE, the Parthians invaded the eastern Roman provinces, in Judea, the Hasmonean dynasty was restored under king Antigonus as a pro-Parthian monarch. Herod the Great, the son of Antipater the Idumean and Cypros, after convincing the Roman Senate of his sincere intentions in favor of Romans he eventually was announced as king of the Jews by the Roman Senate. Despite his announcement as king of the whole of Judea, Herod did not fully conquer it until 37 BCE, Herod ruled Judea until 4 BCE, at his death his kingdom was divided among his three sons as a tetrarchy. Herod Archelaus, son of Herod and Malthace the Samaritan, was given the part of the kingdom, Judea proper, Edom. He ruled for ten years until 6 CE, when he was banished to Vienne in Gaul, where—according to Dion Cassius Cocceianus, 27—he lived for the remainder of his days. Herod Philip I, son of Herod and his fifth wife Cleopatra of Jerusalem, was given jurisdiction over the northeast part of his fathers kingdom, he ruled there until his death in 34 CE. Herod Antipas, another son of Herod and Malthace, was ruler of the Galilee and Perea. Herod Antipas is probably the person referenced in the Christian New Testament Gospels, playing a role in the death of John the Baptist, in 41 CE, Emperor Claudius added to his territory the parts of Iudea province, that previously belonged to Herod Archelaus. Thus Agrippa I practically re-united his grandfathers kingdom under his rule, Agrippa Is son Agrippa II was appointed King and ruler of the northern parts of his fathers kingdom. He was the last of the Herodians, and with his death in c.92 CE the dynasty was extinct, in addition, Aristobulus of Chalcis of the Herodian dynasty was tetrarch of Chalcis and king of Armenia Minor. His father, Herod of Chalcis ruled as king of Chalcis earlier, such portrayals were still in folk memory in William Shakespeares time, for Hamlet instructs the players not to out-Herod Herod

Herodian dynasty
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Coin of Herod the Great

39.
Herodian kingdom
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The Herodian kingdom of Judaea was a client state of the Roman Republic from 37 BCE, when Herod the Great was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the kingdom was divided among his sons into the Herodian Tetrarchy, the first intervention of Rome in the region dates from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when Rome created the province of Syria. After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, Pompey sacked Jerusalem in 63 BCE, the Hasmonean Queen, Salome Alexandra, had recently died and her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, turned against each other in a civil war. In 63 BCE, Aristobulus was besieged in Jerusalem by his brothers armies and he sent an envoy to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Pompeys representative in the area. Aristobulus offered a bribe to be rescued, which Pompey promptly accepted. Afterwards, Aristobulus accused Scaurus of extortion, since Scaurus was Pompeys brother in law and protégée, the general retaliated by putting Hyrcanus in charge of the kingdom as Prince and High Priest. When Pompey was defeated by Julius Caesar, Hyrcanus was succeeded by his courtier Antipater the Idumaean, in 57-55 BCE, Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, split the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts of Sanhedrin/Synedrion. The Parthian army crossed the Euphrates and Labienus was able to entice Mark Antonys Roman garrisons around Syria to rally to his cause, the Parthians split their army, and under Pacorus conquered the Levant from the Phoenician coast through the Land of Israel, Antigonus. Roused the Parthians to invade Syria and Palestine, the Jews eagerly rose in support of the scion of the Maccabean house, when Phasael and Hyrcanus II set out on an embassy to the Parthians, the Parthians instead captured them. Antigonus, who was present, cut off Hyrcanuss ears to make him unsuitable for the High Priesthood, Antigonus, whose Hebrew name was Mattathias, bore the double title of king and High Priest for only three years. He had not disposed of Herod, who fled into exile, Herod was designated King of the Jews by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE, Antony then resolved to get made king of the Jews. Told that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king, Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign. The struggle thereafter lasted for years, as the main Roman forces were occupied with defeating the Parthians and had few additional resources to use to support Herod. After the Parthian defeat, Herod was victorious over his rival in 37 BCE, Antigonus was delivered to Antony and executed shortly thereafter, bringing about the end of the Hasmonean rule over Israel. Under his enterprise, such projects as the Masada fortress, the Herodion, during King Herods reign the last representatives of the Hasmoneans were eliminated. Antigonus was not, however, the last Hasmonean, the fate of the remaining male members of the family under Herod was not a happy one. Aristobulus III, grandson of Aristobulus II through his elder son Alexander, was made high priest. His sister, Mariamne was married to Herod, but fell victim to his notorious jealousy and her sons by Herod, Aristobulus IV and Alexander, were in their adulthood also executed by their father

Herodian kingdom
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Judaea under Herod the Great
Herodian kingdom
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Pompey in the Temple of Jerusalem, by Jean Fouquet
Herodian kingdom
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The taking of Jerusalem by Herod the Great, 37 BCE, by Jean Fouquet, late 15th century.

40.
Herodian Tetrarchy
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The Herodian Tetrarchy was formed following the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, when his kingdom was divided between his sons as an inheritance. However, other parts of the Herodian Tetrarchy continued to function under Herodians, thus, Philip the Tetrarch ruled Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis until 34 CE, while Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea until 39 CE. At the time of his death, Herod ruled over most of the South Western Levant, Antipas was not Herods first choice of heir. That honor fell to Aristobulus and Alexander, Herods sons by the Hasmonean princess Mariamne, during his fatal illness in 4 BCE, Herod had yet another change of heart about the succession. Philip was to receive Gaulanitis, Batanaea, Trachonitis and Auranitis, because of Judeas status as a Roman client kingdom, Herods plans for the succession had to be ratified by Augustus. The three heirs of Herod therefore travelled to Rome to make their claims, Antipas arguing he ought to inherit the whole kingdom, Archelaus had, however, to be content with the title of ethnarch rather than king. Herod Antipas, Archelaus’ brother, became Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, Philip I, Herod’s son by his fifth wife Cleopatra of Jerusalem, became Tetrarch of the northern part of Herod’s kingdom. A number of these refer to the same places, found now in modern-day Syria. In a turbulent period of history, the rule of the tetrarchs was relatively uneventful, the most trouble fell to Archelaus, who was faced with sedition by the Pharisees at the beginning of his reign, and crushed it with great severity. After ruling for 10 years he was removed by the emperor Augustus in 6 CE, following complaints about his cruelty and he was replaced by a Roman prefect, and his territory re-organized as the Roman province of Iudaea. Philip ruled Ituraea and Trachonitis as a tetrarch until his death in 34 CE when his territories became part of the Roman province of Syria. Agrippa arranged for Chalcis to be handed over to his brother Herod, with this acquisition, a Herodian Kingdom of the Jews was nominally re-established until 44 CE though there is no indication that status as a province was suspended. The word Tetrarch suggests four rulers, however Josephus, in the context of describing Herod’s legacy and he refers to Archelaus, who had one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and for Philip and Antipas the other half, divided into two parts. On the other hand, Luke the Evangelist refers to Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene, in his list of rulers at the time of John the Baptist, alongside Pontius Pilate, Herod, Josephus reference to one half the kingdom may signify that Archelaus was ruler of two quarters. Or it may be that Josephus, in describing the inheritances of Herods sons, omitted to mention Lysanias, or his predecessor, as they were not Herodians. It is the view of W. Smith, referring to Abilene, that Abilene, or part of it, was subject to Herod before his death, and held by Lysanias as a tetrarchate from him. The territory was returned later to the Herodians, the first part by Caligula to Herod Agrippa I, Herodian dynasty This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Smith, William

41.
Judea (Roman province)
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It was named after Herod Archelauss Tetrarchy of Judea, but the Roman province encompassed a much larger territory. The name Judea was derived from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BCE, Judea province was the scene of unrest at its founding in 6 CE during the Census of Quirinius and several wars were fought in its history, known as the Jewish–Roman wars. The first intervention of Rome in the dates from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War. After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, Pompey sacked Jerusalem and established Hasmonean prince Hyrcanus II as Ethnarch and High Priest, a later appointment by Julius Caesar was Antipater the Idumaean, also known as Antipas, as the first Roman Procurator. Herod the Great, Antipaters son, was designated King of the Jews by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE and he did not gain military control until 37 BCE. During his reign the last representatives of the Hasmoneans were eliminated, and he died in 4 BCE, and his kingdom was divided mostly among three of his sons, who became tetrarchs. One of these tetrarchies was Judea corresponding to the territory of the historic Judea, plus Samaria, Herods son Herod Archelaus, ruled Judea so badly that he was dismissed in 6 CE by the Roman emperor Augustus, after an appeal from his own population. Another, Herod Antipas, ruled as tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 BCE to 39 CE, the third tetrarch, Herods son Philip, ruled over the northeastern part of his fathers kingdom. In 6 CE Archelaus tetrachy came under direct Roman administration, even though Iudaea is simply derived from the Latin for Judea, many historians use it to distinguish the Roman province from the previous territory and history. Iudaea province did not initially include Galilee, Gaulanitis, nor Peraea or the Decapolis, the capital was at Caesarea, not Jerusalem. Quirinius became Legate of Syria and conducted the first Roman tax census of Syria and Iudaea, pontius Pilate, whose name was recorded in the Pilate Stone, was one of these prefects, from 26 to 36 CE. Still, Jews living in the province maintained some form of independence and could judge offenders by their own laws, including capital offences, until c.28 CE. The Province of Judea, during the late 2nd Temple period was divided into five conclaves, or administrative districts, 1) Jerusalem, 2) Gadara, 3) Amathus, 4) Jericho. Caiaphas was one of the appointed High Priests of Herods Temple, both were deposed by the Syrian Legate Lucius Vitellius in 36 CE. The Crisis under Caligula has been proposed as the first open break between Rome and the Jews and he elevated Iudaeass procurator whom he trusted to imperial governing status because the imperial legate of Syria was not sympathetic to the Judeans. Following Agrippas death in 44 CE, the returned to direct Roman control, incorporating Agrippas personal territories of Galilee and Peraea. Nevertheless, Agrippas son, Agrippa II was designated King of the Jews in 48 and he was the seventh and last of the Herodians. From 70 CE until 135 CE, Iudaeas rebelliousness required a governing Roman legate capable of commanding legions

42.
History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages
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After this, the city remained a backwater of the late medieval Muslim empires and would not again exceed a population of 10,000 until the 16th century. It was passed back and forth through various Muslim factions until decidedly conquered by the Ottomans in 1517, Jerusalem reached a peak in size and population at the end of the Second Temple Period, The city covered two square kilometers and had a population of 200,000. In the five following the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century. During the 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine I constructed Christian sites in Jerusalem such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 800, Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it, from the days of Constantine until the Arab conquest in 638, despite intensive lobbying by Judeo-Byzantines, Jews were forbidden to enter the city. Following the Arab capture of Jerusalem, the Jews were allowed back into the city by Muslim rulers such as Umar ibn al-Khattab, during the 8th to 11th centuries, Jerusalems prominence gradually diminished as the Arab powers in the region jockeyed for control. The city was one of the Arab Caliphates first conquests in 638, Umar chose to pray some distance from the church, so as not to endanger its status as a Christian temple. Fifty-five years later, the Mosque of Omar was constructed on the site where he prayed, after fall of Jerusalem, Umar permitted Jews to practice their religion freely and live in Jerusalem. Sixty years later, the Umayyad Dynasty caliph Abd al-Malik commissioned and completed the construction of the Dome of the Rock over the Foundation Stone on Jerusalems Temple Mount. Although the Quran does not mention the name Jerusalem, the hadith specify that it was from Jerusalem that Muhammad ascended to heaven in the Night Journey, or Isra, Al-Malik built the octagonal and gold-sheeted Dome over the location from which Muhammad was believed to have ascended into heaven. The Al-Aqsa Mosque was also nearby, again in honor of the story of the Night Journey. Jerusalem under Muslim rule did not achieve the political or cultural status enjoyed by the capitals Damascus, Baghdad, the Emperor Charlemagne started the precedent of Western European influence in the region under various treaties with the Caliphs establishing Frankish protection for pilgrims. With the decline of the Carolingian Empire in the early 10th century, however, the recovered Byzantines filled this void and as the Empire expanded under the Byzantine Crusades, Christians were again allowed to pilgrimage to Jerusalem. According to Rabbi Elijah of Chelm, German Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century, the story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to besiege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger’s family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms to repay the favor. Further evidence of German communities in the city comes in the form of halakic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the 11th century. As the Byzantine borders expanded into the Levant in the early 11th century, the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of all churches throughout Al-Islam starting with the churches in Jerusalem. In 1070–71, the Turkic emir Atsiz ibn Uvaq al-Khwarizmi besieged and captured the city and he therefore besieged the city again, and on recapturing it, slaughtered an estimated 3,000 of the rebel inhabitants, including those who had taken shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque

History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages
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View of Jerusalem (Conrad Grünenberg, 1487)
History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages
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Map of Jerusalem as it appeared in the years 958–1052, according to Arabgeographers such as al-Muqaddasi.
History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages
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The HerefordMappa Mundi, depicting Jerusalem at the center of the world.
History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages
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Jerusalem

43.
Syria Palaestina
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Syria Palaestina was a Roman province between 135 and about 390. It was established by the merger of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea, shortly after 193, the northern regions were split off as Syria Coele in the north and Phoenice in the south, and the province Syria Palaestina was reduced to Judea. The earliest numismatic evidence for the name Syria Palaestina comes from the period of emperor Marcus Aurelius, Syria was an early Roman province, annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War, following the defeat of Armenian King Tigranes the Great. Following the partition of the Herodian Kingdom into tetrarchies in 6 AD, it was absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing Iturea. The Roman province of Judea incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea and it was named after Herod Archelauss Tetrarchy of Judea, but the Roman province encompassed a much larger territory. H. Ben-Sasson, had been the capital of the region beginning in 6 AD. Judea province was the scene of unrest at its founding in 6 AD during the Census of Quirinius and several wars were fought in its history, the Temple was destroyed in 70 as part of the Great Jewish Revolt resulting in the institution of the Fiscus Judaicus. Disturbances followed throughout the region during the Kitos War in 117–118, between 132–135, Simon Bar Kokhba led a revolt against the Roman Empire, controlling parts of Judea but seemingly not Jerusalem, for three years. As a result, Hadrian sent Sextus Julius Severus to the region, after crushing the Bar Kokhba revolt, the Roman Emperor Hadrian applied the name Syria Palestina to the entire region, that had formerly included Judea province. The city of Aelia Capitolina was built by the emperor Hadrian on the ruins of Jerusalem, the capital of the enlarged province remained in Antiochia. In 193, the province of Syria-Coele was split from Syria Palaestina, in the 3rd century, Syrians even reached for imperial power, with the Severan dynasty. Syria was of strategic importance during the Crisis of the Third Century. Beginning in 212, Palmyras trade diminished as the Sassanids occupied the mouth of the Tigris, in 232, the Syrian Legion rebelled against the Roman Empire, but the uprising went unsuccessful. Septimius Odaenathus, a Prince of the Aramean state of Palmyra, was appointed by Valerian as the governor of the province of Syria Palaestina. After Valerian was captured by the Sassanids in 260, and died in captivity in Bishapur, Odaenathus campaigned as far as Ctesiphon for revenge, when Odaenathus was assassinated by his nephew Maconius, his wife Septimia Zenobia took power, ruling Palmyra on behalf of her son, Vabalathus. Zenobia rebelled against Roman authority with the help of Cassius Longinus and took over Bosra and lands as far to the west as Egypt, next, she took Antioch and large sections of Asia Minor to the north. In 272, the Roman Emperor Aurelian finally restored Roman control and Palmyra was besieged and sacked, Aurelian captured Zenobia, bringing her back to Rome. He paraded her in chains in the presence of the senator Marcellus Petrus Nutenus, but allowed her to retire to a villa in Tibur

44.
Diocese of the East
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The Diocese of the East was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of the western Middle East, between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. Its capital was at Antioch, and its governor had the title of comes Orientis instead of the ordinary vicarius. The diocese was established after the reforms of Diocletian, and was subordinate to the prefecture of the East. The last creation of a new province dated in the reign of Justinian I, when Theodorias, at about the same time, Cyprus was split off and became part of a new super-province, the quaestura exercitus. The entire area of the diocese came under Sassanid Persian occupation in the 610s and 620s. From the old provinces of the Diocese of the East, only Isauria and parts of the two Cilicias remained under Byzantine rule, grouped under the new Anatolic Theme

Diocese of the East
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The Diocese of the East c. 400.

45.
Palaestina Prima
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Palæstina Prima or Palaestina I was a Byzantine province from 390, until the 7th century. It was lost to the Sassanid Empire in 614, but was re-annexed in 628, despite Christian domination, through 4th and 5th centuries Samaritans developed a semi-autonomy in the hill country of Samaria, a move which gradually escalated into a series of open revolts. The four major Samaritan Revolts during this period caused an extinction of the Samaritan community. In the late 6th century, Byzantines and their Christian Ghassanid allies took an upper hand in the struggle. In 614, Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Secunda were conquered by a joint Sassanid, the event shocked the Christian society, as many of its churches were destroyed and the True Cross taken by the Persians to Ctesiphon. After withdrawal of the Persian troops and the subsequent surrender of the local Jewish rebels, Byzantine control of the province was again and irreversibly lost in 636, during the Muslim conquest of Syria. The province of Palaestina Prima included a mixed Greek and Aramaic-speaking population, with Greek, Samaritans were the second dominant group, which populated most of the hill country of Samaria, numbering around one million in the 4th and 5th centuries. Minorities of Jews, Christian Ghassanids and Nabateans were present as well, Jews formed a majority in the neighbouring Palaestina Secunda, while the Ghassanids and Nabateans inhabited the Arabian desert to the south and east. Most of the Jews of prior Antiquity, however, had been exiled to Babylon after wars with the Romans, depending on the time, either a notable Roman or Persian military presence would be noted. Arianism and other forms of Christianity found themselves in an environment as well. Variants of the Mosaic religion were still at large from the 4th until the 6th centuries, practiced by communities of Samaritans. However, with the decline of the Samaritan and Jewish populations through war and by conversion the 6th and 7th century, by the late Byzantine period fewer synagogues could be found and many were destroyed in violent events. The city of Hebron is notable in being one of the last Jewish cities remaining, ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Palaestina Prima listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees, Palaestina Secunda Palestina Salutaris Coele-Syria Iudaea Province

Palaestina Prima
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Byzantine provinces in the 5th century

46.
Palaestina Secunda
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Palæstina Secunda or Palaestina II was a Byzantine province from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634-636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised the Galilee, Yizrael Valley, Bet Shean Valley and southern part of the Golan plateau, the major cities of the province were Scythopolis, Capernaum and Nazareth. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Byzantines and their Christian Ghassanid allies took a role in suppressing the Samaritan Revolts in neighbouring Palaestina Prima. By the 6th century Christian Ghassanids formed a Byzantine vassal confederacy with a capital on the Golan, in 614, both Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Secunda were conquered by a joint Sasanian-Jewish army. The leader of the Jewish rebels was Benjamin of Tiberias, a man of wealth according to Middle Aged sources, and by Nehemiah ben Hushiel. The event came as shock to the Christian society, as many of its churches were destroyed according to Christian sources of that period, after withdrawal of the Persian troops and the afterward surrender of the local Jewish rebels, the area was shortly reannexed into Byzantium in 628 CE. Byzantine control of the province was again and irreversibly lost in 636 and it was later roughly reorganized as Jund al-Urdunn military district of Bilad al-Sham province of the Rashidun Caliphate. Prior to the 6th century, the province of Palaestina Secunda largely included Jews, as well as a mixed Greek and Aramaic-speaking population, who were mostly practicing Christianity. North-Eastern parts of the province were also inhabited by pagan Itureans, in the early 7th century, the province experienced a significant demographic collapse due to the consequences of the Byzantine-Persian war and the Jewish rebellion. The province of Palaestina Secunda was a center of Judaism through the 4th and 5th centuries. The primary Jewish authority, the Sanhedrin, existed in Tiberias until the early 5th century, the last Nasi of the Sanhedrin was Gamaliel VI, who died in 425. After his death, the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius did not allow for a successor, the conversion of Constantine set in motion events that restored Palestine as a major theater in the development of the Christian church, as it had not been since 70. Only a few Minim had lived in few Galilean towns such as Sepphoris, less successfully, imperial policy tried to encourage Jews to convert to Christianity by offering protection and rewards. Eventually, as a result of Christian settlement in the vicinities of Nazareth and Capernaum and Tabgha, small minority of pagans - whether non-Christian Romans and Hellenists or Itureans had been populating the province during early Byzantine rule

Palaestina Secunda
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Byzantine Palestine in the 5th century
Palaestina Secunda
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Ruins of an ancient synagogue in the late Roman town of Capernaum, Palaestina Secunda
Palaestina Secunda
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Roman street of Scythopolis in Bet She'an National Park, Israel

47.
Samaritan revolts
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The Samaritan revolts were a series of insurrections during the 5th and 6th centuries in Palaestina Prima province, launched by the Samaritans against the Byzantine Empire. The revolts were marked by violence on both sides, and their brutal suppression at the hands of the Byzantines and their Ghassanid allies severely reduced the Samaritan population. The events irreversibly shifted the demographics of the region, making the Christians the only dominant group in the Palaestina Prima province for many decades onward, Samaritans fared badly under the Roman Empire, when Samaria was a part of the Roman-ruled province of Judaea. Though not directly targeted, Samaritans also suffered the consequences of Jewish–Roman wars in the area, during. Samaritans and Byzantine Christians filled this vacuum in the regions of Southern Levant, whereas Nabataeans. This period is considered an age for the Samaritan community. The Temple of Gerizim was rebuilt after the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea, with the withdrawal of Roman legions, Samaria enjoyed a limited kind of independence on the course of the 3rd and 4th century. Baba Rabba, the leader of the Samaritans, divided Samaritan territories to districts and he also executed a series of reforms and installed state institutions. Much of Samaritan liturgy was set by Baba Rabba during this time and this period of semi-independence was however brief, as Byzantine forces overran Samaria, and took Baba Rabba captive to Constantinople, where he died in prison several years later c.362 CE. During the reign of Emperor Zeno, tensions between the Christian community and the Samaritans in Neapolis grew dramatically, according to Samaritan sources, Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno persecuted the Samaritans with no mercy. The Emperor went to Sichem, gathered the elders and asked them to convert, when refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed. Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted, provoked by rumors that the Christians intended to transfer the remains of Aarons sons and grandsons Eleazar, Ithamar, Samaritans reacted by entering the cathedral of Neapolis, killing the Christians inside and severing the fingers of the bishop Terebinthus. The Samaritans elected Justa as their king and moved to Caesarea, there many Christians were killed and the church of St. Procopius was destroyed. Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus, according to John Malalas, the Dux Palaestinae Asclepiades, whose troops were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of general Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno. Terebinthus meanwhile fled to Constantinople, requesting an army garrison to prevent further attacks, according to Procopius, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge, the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion. As a result of the revolt, the Byzantine emperor Zeno erected a dedicated to Mary on Mount Gerizim. He also forbade the Samaritans to travel to the mountain to celebrate their religious ceremonies and these actions by the emperor fueled Samaritan anger towards the Christians further. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, Samaritans rebelled again in 495 under the rule of emperor Anastasius I, reoccupying Mount Gerizim

Samaritan revolts
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A coin with the inscription of Roman stairs of Neapolis to Mt. Gerizim
Samaritan revolts
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Diocese of the Orient at the Byzantine period, where Samaritans largely inhabited Palaestina Prima (Samaria).

48.
Jewish revolt against Heraclius
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Following the Battle of Antioch in 613, Shahrbaraz led his forces through Palaestina Secunda and into Palaestina Prima provinces. In 614, Shahrbaraz conquered Caesarea Maritima, the capital of the Palaestina Prima province. The Persian army reinforced by Jewish forces led by Nehemiah ben Hushiel, after only a few months a Christian revolt occurred. Nehemiah ben Hushiel and his council of sixteen righteous were killed along with many other Jews, Christians were able to briefly retake the city before the walls were breached by Shahrbaraz’s forces who lay siege to the city. In addition 35,000 or 37,000 people including the patriarch Zacharias are said to have been deported to Mesopotamia, the city is said to have been burnt down. However, neither wide spread burning nor destruction of churches have found in the archaeological record. The Jewish army is said to have consisted of 20,000 men, the expedition, however, miscarried, as the Christians of Tyre learned of the impending danger, and seized the 4,000 Tyrian Jews as hostages. The Jewish invaders destroyed the churches around Tyre, an act which the Christians avenged by killing two thousand of their Jewish prisoners, the besiegers, to save the remaining prisoners, withdrew. The Jews had hoped that Khosrau II would give all of the Land of Israel in exchange for their support. By 617 CE the Persians had reversed their policy and sided with the Christians over the Jews, by 622 CE, the Roman Emperor Heraclius had assembled an army to retake the territory lost to the Sasanian Empire. In 628, following the deposition of Khosrau II, Kavadh II made peace with Heraclius and it is said that Benjamin even accompanied Heraclius on his voyage to Jerusalem and Benjamin was persuaded to convert, Benjamin obtained a general pardon for himself and the Jews. On 21 March 630, Emperor Heraclius marched in triumph into Jerusalem with the True Cross, a general massacre of the Jewish population ensued. The massacre devastated the Jewish communities of the Galilee and Jerusalem, only those Jews who could flee to the mountains or Egypt are said to have been spared. Some historians believe the war reduced and weakened the Christian population not just in Jerusalem but across the Near East, however, over the past thirty years the archaeological evidence has not supported the ancient manuscripts which record the devastation of the Christian community in Jerusalem. Jews and Samaritans were persecuted frequently by the Byzantines resulting in numerous revolts, Byzantine religious propaganda developed strong anti-Jewish elements. In several cases Jews tried to support the Sasanian advance. A pogrom in Antioch in 608 would lead to a Jewish revolt in 610 which was crushed, Jews also revolted in both Tyre and Acre in 610. The Jews of Tyre were massacred in reprisal, unlike in earlier times when Jews had supported Christians in the fight against Shapur I, the Byzantines had now become viewed as oppressors

Jewish revolt against Heraclius
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Jewish revolt against Heraclius

49.
Bilad al-Sham
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Bilad al-Sham was a Rashidun, Umayyad and later Abbasid Caliphate province in the region of Syria. The name Bilad aš-Šām means land to the north, or literally land on the left-hand, the name given to the Levant by the Arab conquerors was Aš-Šām The North. The population of the region did not become predominantly Muslim and Arab in identity until nearly a millennium after the conquest, following the Muslim conquest, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan of the Banu Umayya governed Syria for twenty years and developed the province as his familys powerbase. Relying on Syrian military support, Muawiyah emerged as the victor in the First Fitna, during Umayyad times, al-Sham was divided into five junds or military districts. The initial districts were Jund al-Urdunn, Jund Dimashq, Jund Hims, Jund Filastin, later, Jund Qinnasrin was carved out of part of Jund Hims. Syria became much less important under the Abbasid Caliphate, which succeeded the Umayyads in 750, the Abbasids moved the capital first to Kufa and then to Baghdad and Samarra in Iraq, which now became the most important province. The mainly Arab Syrians were marginalized by Iranian and Turkish forces who rose to power under the Abbasids, from 878 until 905, Syria came under the effective control of the Tulunids of Egypt, but Abbasid control was re-established soon thereafter. It lasted until the 940s, when the province was partitioned between the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo in the north and Ikhshidid-controlled Egypt in the south. The division of Syria into northern and southern parts would persist, despite political changes, Palaestina Prima Syria Palaestina Aigle, Denise, ed. Le Bilād al-Šām face aux mondes extérieurs, la perception de lAutre et la représentation du Souverain

Bilad al-Sham

50.
Jund Filastin
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Jund Filastin was one of the military districts of the Ummayad and Abbasid Caliphate province of Bilad al-Sham, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s. According to al-Biladhuri, the towns of the district, following its conquest by the Rashidun Caliphate, were Gaza, Sebastia, Nablus, Caesarea, Ludd, Yibna, Imwas, Jaffa, Rafah. At first, under the early Umayyad caliphs, Ludd served as the district capital, after the caliph Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik founded the nearby city of Ramla, he designated it the capital, and most of Ludds inhabitants were forced to settle there. In the 9th century, during Abbasid rule, Jund Filastin was the most fertile of Syrias districts, the population of the region did not become predominantly Muslim and Arab in identity until several centuries after the conquest. At its greatest extent, Jund Filastin extended from Rafah in the south to Lajjun in the north, the mountains of Edom, and the town of Zoar at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea were included in the district. However, the Galilee was excluded, being part of Jund al-Urdunn in the north, the district persisted in some form until the Seljuk invasions and the Crusades of the late 11th century. Palaestina Prima Syria Palaestina Le Strange, Guy, Palestine Under the Moslems, A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A. D.650 to 1500. London, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, mideastweb Map of Palestine Under the Caliphs, showing Jund boundaries